Posted on 03/11/2014 12:22:56 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Would Parmesan by any other name be as tasty atop your pasta? A ripening trade battle might put that to the test.
As part of trade talks, the European Union wants to ban the use of European names like Parmesan, feta and Gruyère on cheese made in the United States.
The argument is that the American-made cheeses are shadows of the original European varieties and cut into sales and identity of the European cheeses. The Europeans say Parmesan should only come from Parma, Italy, not those familiar green cylinders that American companies sell. Feta should only be from Greece, even though feta isn’t a place. The EU argues it “is so closely connected to Greece as to be identified as an inherently Greek product.”
So, a little “hard-grated cheese” for your pasta? It doesn’t have quite the same ring as Parmesan. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I don’t think they’re going to let us use “spaghetti”. I propose “little skinny noodles you Eurofascist jerks” as a replacement.
The best way to address copyright and patent law is “use it or lose it”.
In effect, making it like the General Mining Act of 1872, which basically said that anyone could stake a claim anywhere, but you had to either invest $500 a year in improving that claim, or recover $500 in profit from it, *or* you would lose your claim. It was a huge success and having mines all over the place was a huge boon to America.
As far as copyright and patent law go, there are vast numbers of companies that own copyrights and patents, but never use them, and sue anyone else who uses a similar idea. And this is a terrible burden on innovation and business and hurts our economy.
Disney is a good example of how this new law would work.
Right now, their character Mickey Mouse is worth a fortune to them every year. They use it frequently, and they defend their copyright. Therefore they should legitimately be able to keep their copyright.
However, they also own the rights to the movie Song of the South, which they did sell, but no longer sell, nor will they allow anyone else to sell. Since they are refusing to do so, they should lose their copyright protections for it, so others could sell their movie.
Taken to the extreme, the copyright and patent industries have vast libraries of content and invention that they formerly sold, but now just library and do not retail. Some just because they don’t think they could make a profit from it.
So they need an ultimatum. “Either you sell it, or you lose your government protection, and somebody else can sell it. But you can no longer just sit on it.”
Maybe call it Parmesham Cheese?
These wacky Old Worlders. It’s always something. Reminds me how the English banned the town of Stilton from making Stilton blue cheese.
The problem with eternal copyrights is that big corporations wind up owning the shared culture, and you are not allowed to build on what went before and make it your own.
I say copyright should end with the death of the original author, or seventy years, whichever comes first.
People get sued for singing "Happy Birthday," for God's sake. That song should be in the public domain.
Walt Disney has been dead for fifty years. He got his fair share from his copyrights.
The mozzerella in Italy is one of my favorites.
Are they also claiming rights to the term ‘Euroweenie’?
I once had a cheese-like substance but a little medication cleared it up no problem!
(No idea if it tasted like Parmesan!)
“The argument is that the American-made cheeses are shadows of the original European varieties and cut into sales and identity of the European cheeses.”
If that argument is correct, then the European cheeses should have no problem beating the American knock-offs in the marketplace, without government assistance.
And push out the pierogi, chrome ball, and white socks factories? Ghoulardi, I mean Ernie Anderson, would roll in his grave.
I would see no argument with this as well, with the exception that 70 years is a recent extension, and is far longer than it should be.
Importantly, there are such vast quantities of library copyrights and patents, there would be a gigantic amount of content released all at once. So the value of entire genres of material would be tiny, unless they were value-added with superior editing, for example. Like Criterion Collection movies today.
They're always telling us how we didn't do anything on our own, but when they do something they say they did it on their own and they want to get paid for it forever.
No doubt a sore point with them — we should license the word “Internet” and every time they use he word they pay us a royalty.
Some years ago somebody noted that a lot of politicians recycle their speeches at dozens of events, using the same anecdotes, phrases, etc.
So why not copyright an opponents “catch phrases” out from underneath him, then send him cease and desist orders when he uses them again in public?
It would have to be tailored to avoid fair use, but it could have a huge nuisance factor on the campaign trail.
The smoked Gouda was wonderful last Christmas. Our chain supermarket's equivalent smoked Gouda was pitiful. There really is a difference!
My wife and I look pretty silly doing the below imitation (click on the below link) while we are searching through the cheeses. People probably think that we are weird. But we have a lot of fun.
Back in the early days of the internet some schmuck here in town grabbed the domain “pittsburghpirates.com”. When the Pirates decided to start a website, he tried to hold them up for a king’s ransom. The team was actually incorporated as “Pittsburgh Baseball Club, Inc.” so he exploited the loophole.
The Pirates website was “pirateball.com” for a couple of seasons until MLB lawyers were able to sufficiently rattle this guy.
And apply that rule to News reporters, too. My wife and I have a running bet as which catch word or catch phrase the local news reports will use tonight. I joke to my wife that they must have a big bowl with all of the phrases written on pieces of paper. They reach in and grab one or two while they are writing the story.
I prefer Romano, grated fresh. That stuff that comes in the green Kraft thing is not in the same league.
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