Via reddit: “Chilean Indians take on Microsoft”
Briefly put, Microsoft released Windows in a Mapudungun translation, and the Mapuche, a native American tribe in Chile and Argentine, are none too pleased, believing they should have been consulted about it prior to release. They’ve filed suit, and are willing to go all the way to the US Supreme Court. There’s about 440,000 total and 200,000 regular speakers of the language, and Microsoft asserts they were trying to allow them to connect with the “rest of the world”.
To me, it sounds like that is indeed what Microsoft would have accomplished, and the Mapuche’s reaction doesn’t make much sense to me. Seriously, am I missing something? Is this just about anti-Microsoft FUD, or is there a problem with the resulting product, such as a misrepresentation of the language? What was Microsoft supposed to “consult” on?
Others' Thoughts
Comment on November 26th, 2006 at 1:58 am
Their language is tribal intellectual property. You can’t use it without paying a licensing fee. Duh.
Comment on November 26th, 2006 at 2:33 am
Quote: They sent a letter to Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, accusing his company of “intellectual piracy”.
rofl
I find the fifth comment on the Scotsman’s article explanatory: “The mapuche language is basically an oral one. Microsoft and the Chilean government decided upon one grafemary (written version) to translate Windows without consulting the mapuche nation.”
Think about the attempted reform of german orthography, it was mostly revoked after a storm of protests.
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