Pope passes special Vatican copyright giving him exclusive right to use his name, title, image

[phands]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/19/pope-passes-special.html

I'm going to pontificate frequently, and I'm not paying the old fraud a penny. Seriously - trying to copyright words in common usage....

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The Pope has created a special (and weirdly incoherent) copyright in his name, image and symbols. This "copyright" appears to prohibit using these words and symbols to denote goods or services ("Pope Secondary School," "Pope Soap," "Pope Burgers"), all of which are covered already under trademark and fraud laws, and need no copyright to protect them.

The statement cited a "great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father" in recent years as contributing to a desire to use the Pontiff's name for all manner of educational and cultural institutions, civic groups and foundations.

Due to this demand, the Vatican has felt it necessary to declare that "it alone has the right to ensure the respect due to the Successors of Peter, and therefore, to protect the figure and personal identity of the Pope from the unauthorized use of his name and/or the papal coat of arms for ends and activities which have little or nothing to do with the Catholic Church..."

"Consequently, the use of anything referring directly to the person or office of the Supreme Pontiff... and/or the use of the title 'Pontifical,' must receive previous and express authorization from the Holy See," concluded the message released to the press.
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[Jobar]

Some of the comments on that story are great!
How sad for them that they cannot "copyright" (is that what they just did?) or trademark God. That's "God" with a capital "G".
Actually I think they would copyright or trademark or patent God, but I suspect they fear the Jews would hit them with Prior art.

[Notta]

I wonder if the copyright will expire 99 years after his death, or if it will automatically transfer to each successive 'pope.'

What a maroon!

[DMB]

In any case, he's not the only pope. The orthodox churches have multiple popes and there's nothing to stop me starting a new church tomorrow and calling myself pope.

It's a convention that when we say "the pope" we usually mean the nasty old man in the Vatican. I have noticed that when Americans say "the Queen" it often by default means QE2, but they don't actually have a queen themselves and there are lots of queens dotted around the place in different countries (not counting the homosexual meanings).

Somehow I doubt that the people who make or the people who buy Pope Soap on a Rope (I am one of the latter) have affection and esteem for either JP2 or Ratzy at the forefront of their minds.

[Celsus]

The idea of "Pope Secondary School" (etc.) is a straw man that isn't what the actual issue is about. It's about something like "Pope Benedict XVI Secondary School" or "Pontifical Institute of ..." which imply papal approval of the institute. That certainly should be protected, just like someone starting a Richard Dawkins Institute of Creation Research would be appropriate grounds for a lawsuit.

[phands]

"Consequently, the use of anything referring directly to the person or office of the Supreme Pontiff... and/or the use of the title 'Pontifical,' must receive previous and express authorization from the Holy See,"

That's a pretty all-encompassing, and probably unenforceable, restriction. That way, a news item that refers to the vatican, the holy-see or the pope himself must be authorized before publication. It could be a censorship mechanism to stop stories about priests buggering young boys being published.

[Celsus]

There already exist special exemptions for satire, mention of public figures, etc. David Beckham, for example, has trademarked his own name, image, blah blah and that hasn't exactly stopped him from being mentioned ad nauseum, spoofed, even used in a movie title (with permission though). The problem, as stated in the release, is impersonation of office, and use without permission for intent to gain credibility (or similar). Any half-awake lawyer would have no problems arguing against charges over a newspaper mention of the pope, or a satirical website that uses protected terms or other such uses. If you think that it's trying to censor the entire world from using its name, well it simply can't and they're not that dumb.

[Alethias]

according to the Catholic News Agency (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy_see_declares_unique_copyright_on_papal_figure ):
"Consequently, the use of anything referring directly to the person or office of the Supreme Pontiff... and/or the use of the title 'Pontifical,' must receive previous and express authorization from the Holy See," concluded the message released to the press.I guess that means they'd be bothered by the Pope soap on a rope:
http://ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/pope/media/soap_on_a_rope.jpg

or the Pope Benedict Classic Thong:
http://ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/pope/media/pope_thong.jpg

Or the Pope's Pilsener:
http://ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/pope/media/pope_beer.jpg

lol (pics courtesy of ship-of-fools (http://ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/pope/171.html))

[LoneWolf]

Similar threads merged

[Jet Black]

gosh how important. He has been busy in talks with copyright and vatican lawyers rather than dealing with trivia such as institutionally protected paedophiles gay men who like young boys.

[DMB]

gosh how important. He has been busy in talks with copyright and vatican lawyers rather than dealing with trivia such as institutionally protected paedophiles gay men who like young boys.

Why on earth would he worry about that? He personally bears most of the responsibilty for the institutional cover-up since 1981. He has known all the essentials about that ever since.

[munnki]

This all sounds like popery (tm) to me...

[DMB]

No,munnki, it's probably popycock. Tut! I never could spell!

[Renshia]

can you really copy write or trademark something after it has hit public domain?
I thought it had to be done before public disclosure to be valid?