Re: Swiss govt agency declares Linux/OSS crapware "not a sufficientalternative to Microsoft products"

[Alan Mackenzie]

In gnu.misc.discuss Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> wrote:
> (crossposting to GNU land)

> Details:

> https://www.ige.ch/institut/einstein.html
> https://www.ige.ch/institut/einstein/haeufige-fragen.html

> https://www.ige.ch/en/institute/einstein/frequently-asked-questions.html

> "When was the IGE established and under which names has it existed?

> The IGE was established November, 15 1888. Its official names have been:

> 1888 to 1979 ? Federal Office for Intellectual Property

> 1979 to 1996 ? Federal Intellectual Property Agency

Sorry, pal, but that's untrue.  (Or as Rjack would put it, "you're
lying".)  No way would the name of a Swiss institute be in English.

Enough of the regulars here understand German to state the real name.  At
a guess, "IGE" stands for "Institut fuer geistliches Eigentum", or
something like that.

Whilst "Eigentum" is usually translated into the English "property", it's
meaning in German is wider: literally "self stuff".  The English word
denotes only physical, substantial things, despite the efforts of
copyright advocates to pervert this meaning.

"Geistlich" means literally "religious" or "spiritual", and in fact is
cognate to "ghostly".  Translating it into "intellectual" is taking
liberties indeed.

A more accurate translation would be "ghostly property" rather than
"intellectual property", the word "ghostly" referring to the
non-material, non-substantial, ephemeral, not-really-existing nature of
that self stuff.

As you ought to realise, being a German fluent in English, you can't just
do word for word translations and expect the result to be unsilly.

> regards,
> alexander.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).