Thursday, December 13, 2007

Privatizing what's not yours

I generally don't care much about Malaysia's recent claims over cultural products (i.e. batik, angklung, the song 'Rasa Sayange') native to peoples who now live in Indonesian territories. That is, as long as such products are left in the public domain.

However, this time some Malaysian academics have gone too far. As Kompas reported, they are now roaming over Indonesian villages, 'hunting' for classic Malay manuscripts, and place them on a site which people have to pay to use.

Really, I don't care if they claim it as part of their culture. But putting proprietary rights to something that they did not invent? Please...

4 comments:

  1. tragic...
    and with this news, that half of artifacts in [i forgot] museum already forged

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  2. Do they publish Latin script version or Jawi? Malay manuscripts are usually written in Jawi (Arab-Melayu) script. If they do transliteration to Latin they can claim the rights to the Latin version, even though the Jawi version remains in public domain.

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  3. Yes, I agree with you. but that true

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  4. The truth is the good thing for you

    ReplyDelete