And this is another reason why...

[strredwolf]

The Vatican/Holy See has just claimed perpetual copyright on anything Pope.

That's straight from the Holy See.

No word on such things as Fair Use, or even existing copyright law! Which... is a problem, in 95% of the countries.

If I take a US-centric view of this, there's a whole boat-load of problems:

1. Copyright lasted for 35 years when the USA was founded.  The Holy See has been in existence well before that (at least 2000 years ago).  Even using the current limit of 95 years, their claim of copyright has been lost to the ages.  It is at most public domain.
   
2. That said, the Holy See hasn't even been defending it's copyright on the legal front.  To do it now will only earn rejection on the court front -- something that the Holy See has already said it would be under all jurisdictions. So that's two towards public domain.
3. Plus, since the copyright is so broad and yet so restrictive on use, in the US it can't help but be deemed invalid.

I believe there are similar objections in most countries there now.  So for the Holy See to pull this stunt makes me think they're heading more into the looney bin.

Comments

[mike-fang.livejournal.com]

They've just claimed perpetual copyright on "anything Pope".

Okay....the fuck does that mean?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an educated guess it means they're saying the title of "Pope" belongs solely to the Catholic Church. And as I see it, they are not too late in doing this. After all, they were the first religion to have a Pope, I believe they established the position of Pope and no other existing religion I'm aware of has a Pope. Ergo, I think they have a good case to say no other religion can have a position called "Pope". So there will be no Pope of the pastafarians and no Pope of the cult of Michael Jackson or anything like that if the copyright is accepted.

Oh yeah, and as a Catholic, I don't like hearing people suggest either my faith or my church is crazy. I admit it's had its bad points and rotten apples, but saying the church as a whole is insane doesn't sit well with me.

[kusanagi-sama.livejournal.com]

Wonder what affect this has on movies like "Angels and Demons"?

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

From the "horses mouth:"
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy_see_declares_unique_copyright_on_papal_figure

The comments on there largely reflect my feelings -- That's not copyright, that's trademark, and good luck getting it enforced. Someone forgot to make a field trip outside the Vatican and properly research this. It really puts The Holy See in a bad light.