For those intimidated by federal legal code and confused by copyright law, Israeli game designer Yehuda Berlinger has a whimsical solution: rewriting the copyright code in rhyming verse.
His poetic approach isn’t particularly elegant or refined, but it’s much more fun than reading the original document. For example, this stanza:
Owning work doesn’t mean
Owning the container;
And you own the container
Not the work; could I be plainer?
is derived from this lovely bit of prose:
Ownership of a copyright, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied. Transfer of ownership of any material object, including the copy or phonorecord in which the work is first fixed, does not of itself convey any rights in the copyrighted work embodied in the object; nor, in the absence of an agreement, does transfer of ownership of a copyright or of any exclusive rights under a copyright convey property rights in any material object.
Ah, the power of poetry.
NOTE: If you like the copyright poem, also see the poetic treatment of the U.S. patent and trademark codes.
