Paracopyright

Lost about an hour yesterday to The Word Spy. It's a site devoted to the scholarly snark-hunt of neologisms. I'd forgotten how much I love watching new language emerge. Puppy Leave and Pomosexual are faves so far.

I can across Paracopyright, too: (PAYR.uh.kawp.ee.ryt) n. A set of non-traditional copyright-related principles, practices, and laws that exist alongside and attempt to extend traditional copyright protection.

There was a fairly chilling quote on there that I pinged off to Piers -


> For example, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) contains
> provisions that make it illegal to create or "traffic in" products
> that can be used to circumvent built-in copyright protection. In other
> words, the definition of a copyright violation has been extended from
> the illegal copying or selling of a work to merely creating a tool
> that might enable other people to do so. This is far removed from
> traditional copyright protection, hence the term "paracopyright for
> such provisions.
>
> Now... does it strike you that, just possibly, the biro could be
> included in such a category? As could copyandpaste?

And his reply is priceless, and should be printed on Tshirts:

But these guys are fighting the printing press, and Gutenberg's already released his bible.