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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 3691679" data-attributes="member: 14159">A question for all the Copyright and other IP law issue savvy people here:One of my big interests is the martial arts, and one thing I'm noticing as a pattern in some arts is making me wonder about what can be copyrighted and how protected it can be.Now, most martial arts have some copyrighted elements.  Whether it is just their textbook or their exact curriculum, but I've now run across two widespread schools that copyright their exact moves.  Okay, so if they are copyrighting their techniques and kata, what degree of protection does that give them.  One school I've run across makes the prohibition so great that you cannot even show your friends your moves informally.  No going out into the backyard and showing your friends your neat moves, and never, ever are you allowed to let anybody record the techniques on video.  Allowing that would be grounds to be immediately expelled from the school, and according to the schools, possibly sued for copyright infringement.Some schools that insist on these protections say it's to keep their secret techniques secret and to prevent people who are not students of their school from learning their secret techniques.  Now, a common reply in regards to this in other martial arts schools is that this is to keep students in the dark as to what they are learning by making it hard to compare and critique schools or teachings.It also makes me wonder about copyright durations.  If a school is claiming that a technique or kata is some centuries or millennia old secret from China, Korea, Okinawa or Japan or wherever can they suddenly slap a copyright date on it even though they say it's been around for 1000 years?So, to the people here knowledgable or interested in IP law, does this sound like it would be legitimate?</blockquote>

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