
Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, with Horrifying Book Curses - diodorus
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/protect-your-library-the-medieval-way-with-horrifying-book-curses
======
nonbel
One of the headline quotes in this article may be a forgery:

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

I don't know anything about this topic, I just saw this after looking it up
real quick:

"The book curse from the San Pedro monastery is no such thing. It is an
amusing hoax dating from 1909. Edmund Pearson, joker, librarian and true-crime
writer, claimed it was part of a rediscovered Old Librarian's Almanack
originally published in 1773. The Old Librarian dated the translation to 1712,
"English'd by Sir Matthew Mahan" in a guide to his Spanish travels."
[https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/marx-
pandora-a...](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/marx-pandora-and-
the-tower-of-porn/416409.article?storyCode=416409&sectioncode=26)

------
greenshackle2
Today we protect our libraries with the GPL, a different kind of horrible
curse.

~~~
reitanqild
Upvoted because it was funny, not because it was right.

I really struggle with AGPL however.

~~~
greenshackle2
I write GPL software for a living, I mean it in the best possible way.

What's your problem with the AGPL? I'm pretty neutral on it myself, I havn't
used it for my own projects but it seems like an ok license to have around for
people who don't want their code used in locked up SaaS.

~~~
greendragon
I interpret a lot of AGPL projects I see as "we're willing to negotiate a
secondary license to your private business". If you're the best in class (or
just the only available public option) it can make sense as a way to try and
make money. If there's a more liberally licensed substitution, however, it's
probably best read as a "don't use me for your business" flag...

~~~
greenshackle2
Right, but, from a business perspective, the same argument goes for GPL vs
permissive licenses; why use GPL if there's an Apache or BSD alternative.

I'm ok with dual licensing, what annoys me is businesses that makes nominally
free software but puts half the core functionality in proprietary extensions.
It feels like they're saying, we want the community to contribute to our core,
but we're going to sell the profitable parts.

Even worse is a company like Odoo (not to name anyone...), who switched from
all AGPL + selling support model to a free core + proprietary modules model.
They relicensed their codebase, claiming they own copyright for all of it
since they rewrote all community-contributed parts, but that's really
questionable. You can't erase 10 years of community contributions.

~~~
cortesoft
I don't really have a problem with this sort of practice, and I think it is
reflective of the model I feel most companies should use: keep the core-to-
your-business software for your company proprietary and open-source all non-
core-to-your-business software. It is the only model that will help keep open-
source alive and well funded.

It is unreasonable and unrealistic to expect a company to open source
everything it creates; there are legitimate competitive advantages to keeping
that software to yourself. It is much easier to convince companies to share
their non-core software, and companies will actually gain from doing this.

------
joggery
Should thou not copiest this book most faithfully, taking care afterwards to
dispatch it to three of thy brothers, thy brains shall be cudgelled forth and
fed to the crows.

~~~
Zikes
Clever and relevant. We look back on these sorts of things with a certain
conceitedness, yet we still have the modern day equivalent with chain letters
and social media posts.

~~~
civilian
Hah, I was not thinking of chain letters and social media posts. My mind was
going in this direction:

 _> You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works
thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object
form, provided that You meet the following conditions:

_>You must give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of
this License; and*

 _> You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that
You changed the files; and_

 _> You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works that You
distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices from the
Source form of the Work, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any
part of the Derivative Works;_

------
sandworm101
We still use these today. We call them copyright notices. "If thou copies or
distributes this work without thy lord permission... bad things." Then as now,
the most ominous warnings are reserved for situations with the least
likelihood of being caught.

~~~
k__
Sure. I you got caught back in the days, horrible things would happen to you
indeed.

------
legal_elise

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... _rolls eyes_.

------
lliamander
So, no different from a standard EULA?

~~~
gpvos
Quicker to read and easier to understand, actually.

------
TheOtherHobbes
I wonder how many medieval book thieves could read?

Also relevant as an early form of DRM:
[http://www.wimborneminster.org.uk/110/chained-
library.html](http://www.wimborneminster.org.uk/110/chained-library.html)

------
Aloha
I wonder if these would work on eBooks? :-P

~~~
leggomylibro
"If you are reading this on an unauthorized device, it will explode when you
turn the page."

~~~
gruturo
Which, given the recent news with Samsung, is now actually a somewhat
believable curse.

------
vacri
I can understand this one: _May the sword of anathema slay, If anyone steals
this book away._

And this one: _If anyone take away this book, let him die the death; let him
be fried in a pan; let the falling sickness and fever size him; let him be
broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen._

But I'm puzzled by this one: _Get our latest, delivered straight to your inbox
by subscribing to our newsletter._

~~~
akovaski

      One newsletter he did slay
      but two rose up from where the first one lay
      two, then four, then eight and more
      A mere human cannot defeat this beast
      "Unsubscribe" he set the auto-reply
      but thousands, no millions, no billions, no trillions
      of newsletters filled up his dying inbox
      Perhaps the first one wasn't so bad?

