RSS and Curses

It is interesting to see how problems we are experiencing now is somehow similar to the problems experienced before.Take for example copyright or the protection of our intellectual property. A problem in the past and in the present. And this is compounded With the increase in the use of RSS and Atom webfeeds. It has speeds up the delivery of information and it has also made it easier for someone to copy and paste it, then pass it off as his own: plagiarized.

One of the interesting examples of plagiarism was the theft of an article about how to protect your post from plagiarists. Everything was lifted, even the copyright statement of the blogger, and posted on another blog, which entered into the river of information aka the RSS and Atom Feed.

Even in Ancient times this was a perennial problem. Information, Data, Entertainment and knowledge in the form of books were chained to the walls and to the desks.

And its easier now that posts and articles are delivered by feeds. Cut and paste and the dastardly deed is done.

Of course in ancient times our predecessors used all means at their disposal to protect their treasures from locks, subterfuge, traps and curses. I wonder if curses would work in our time to protect the content of the webfeed?

Here are a few samples that were used to protect books but can easily be modified to protect the content of feeds. Here are few examples of curses.

The first curse comes from Assyrian King Assurbanipal:

The palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of Assyria, who putteth his trust in the gods Ashur and Belit . . . I have transcribed upon tablets the noble products of the work of the scribe which none of the kings who had gone before me had learned, together with the wisdom of Naub insofar as it existeth {in writing}. I have arranged them in classes, I have revised them and I have placed them in my palace, that I, even I, the ruler who knoweth the light of Ashur, the king of the gods, may read them. Whosoever shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name on it, side by side with mine own, may Ashur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land.*

Or this

Should anyone by craft of any device whatever abstract this book from this place may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not recorded among the Blessed*

Or for the really Unrepentant

For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails [. . .] when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.**

This would probably be as effective as it was in Ancient times: It would be as useful as cupping a corpse. Interesting but ineffective.

I am sure watermarking, embedding security in the post is also a possibility, and a few other things people have not think of. Still a pop-up of an RSS feed would be nice to see.

References:

*Drogin, Marc. Anathema! Totowa, NJ: Allenheld & Schram, 1983.

**Basbanes, Nicholas A. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1995