Nothing to Do with Caulbearers

I’m not gonna lie. I’ve been a bit cranky lately. Today, I’m going to be a little obnoxious, as well.

As you know, I spend some of my blogging time over at Here Be Magic. Last week, one of our number wrote a fascinating piece on people who were born with a caul. I’d heard of this, but Ruth A. Casie did a fairly in-depth job of it. You can read it here: Born Behind the Veil.

Now the problem arose when the normal tweeting of a new post occurred. Someone used the term “The Caulbearer” in their tweet, then found out there’s a group out there that’s quite adamant that they own the copyright on the word and frequently attack people for using it. The tweet was removed before a fuss could be made by the Caulbearer terrorists.

Here Be Magic is a group blog. Removing that tweet was probably the smart thing to do so we didn’t all get into a shouting match with those people. But I’m just me. And you know what? You can’t copyright a word unless it’s something truly unique and unusual. Caulbearer is two common words shoved together. No. Just no.

You can trademark a unique word, but I checked the trademark database. Caulbearer is not in the records.

So, what’s the point of this post? There isn’t one, really. I just wanted to say “Caulbearer” repeatedly. The folks who insist the word belongs to them have a page on their website explaining why they own it. If you’re interested, you can go see it here: Intellectual Property.

Mind you, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t pretend to truly know what I’m talking about. But they make little sense. Let’s take a word that we know is original–say, “Narnia.” Not only are we free to use the word, I’ve also seen it used in other works of fiction. Even if the word were copyrighted through its status of “intellectual property” it doesn’t stop people from using it, now does it? So, even if “Caulbearer” really were copyrighted, I have trouble believing I’m not allowed to use it. Pepsi is trademarked. They don’t go after people for using it. That’s counterproductive.

So, caulbearer. There. I said it again.

I’m a cranky rebel today. And I don’t care for bullies, especially the religious type.

See you real soon!

(Caulbearer.)