Re: Query re: A&S/heraldry comp at Pointless

[Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>]

Poster: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy@abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

Craig wrote:
  This may be so, but if a band plays a song written by a composer,
  they've got to pay for his music, or in other ways grant him the
  credit for writing the music. Otherwise, they'll catch heck,
  either by getting a rep as plagiarists, or from the cold and icy
  hands of the Feds.

But arms and armory aren't at all the same thing.  It's irrelevant.

                     I spent time and treasure working on a name
  and arms, such as they are, and I think I deserve credit for
  having done so. Someone who hasn't gone through the time and
  trouble is skimming off of my work, IMO.

And, if someone else, somewhere, does the work you did, and comes up with
the same arms, what then?

I don't think that anyone would advocate the exagerated case you make here:
I would be horrified if someone went "Armory Shopping" at Pennsic, and
copied the arms they saw there.  It isn't thoughtful or kind.

But I still cannot see how you justify a proprietary attitude toward your
arms and symbols.  It isn't something that is necessarily period, and surely
isn't what the College of Arms promises you.  No matter how wordily Herveus
tries to imply that "It isn't done".

Craig wrote about recourses, and whether there is one:
  We do. That's one of the reasons why Courts of Courtesy and of
  Chivalry were developed. That these tools have sat long unused
  does not remove their usefulness. I'd say that they're last
  resorts, though. The court of the principal herald might be an
  institution worth constructing. The historical parallels of the
  Juge d'Armes and Lord Lyon are documentable bases for such a
  court.

Which, you might note, is what I would have suggested.  Not setting up such
*institutionally*, but inviting the other persons to form one together,
learning about them, and holding one.

Ye Gods, why set up a formal court system, when instead we could create a
one-off version that would be educational and fun?  Are you (people, plural)
so dedicated to making other people do what you want, that you must create
wholesale institutions for imposing your will upon others?

Lighten up, and play the game!
  
  It's not a bad idea, I suppose, but people move from kingdom to
  kingdom rather frequently. Students migrate across boundaries as
  the schools open and shut, military and corporate personnel get
  transferred, and travel, as someone pointed out, is a lot easier
  these days than now. Would you care to wait a few days while
  Laurel finds time to deal with your armorial dispute whle you're
  at Estrella?

So who needs Laurel?  Who needs to even pretend there is a problem?  Let it
happen, and deal gracefully with it.  So someone has the same armory as you
at Pennsic or Gulf Wars, for just a few days.  Work it out for yourselves,
or allow it.  Or place a bend across your arms for a weekend.

Why must one, almost literally, make a federal case out of this?  It's a
small thing, and rights are subjective anyway... in this case.  Might and
rank, as well as propinquity, would have made right in this case in period,
after all.
  
	Tibor
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