Facebook owns the “book”, media mogul Rupert Murdoch owns the “sky”. George Orwell was right that our language would shrink with time, except that it’s thanks to corporate trademarks rather than totalitarian government. Then again, we have the government to blame for the legally imposed monopoly that is copyright…
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/kCldq7YW1KE/ via Byline Facebook is suing a little-known website for educators called Teachbook, claiming Facebook literally owns the -book when it comes to naming social networking sites.
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/08/13/1242233/Rupert-Murdoch-Claims-To-Own-the-Sky-In-Skype?from=rss via Byline Crudely_Indecent writes “Not content to own just news stories, Rupert Murdoch is now going after individual words! His BSkyB is fighting a legal battle with Skype, claiming that it owns the ‘Sky’ in ‘Skype.’ From the article: ‘A spokesman for Sky confirmed that the company has been involved in a “five-year dispute with Skype” over trademark applications filed by the telecomms company. These are, the spokesman added: “including, but not limited to, television-related goods and services.”‘”