M-Dollar: Watch your language: tribe sues Microsoft over Mapuzugun Windows

Microsoft’s going to court over an intellectual property language dispute, but I’m not talking about problems in C# or Visual C++. The Mapuche Indians in Chile are taking Microsoft to court because the company created a version of Windows in Mapuzugun, a language that is the native tongue of about 400,000 Chileans.

According to the AP report,
Microsoft was hoping to bring the Mapuche Indians into the digital age
with a Mapuzugun version of Windows. Apparently, the Mapuche people are
fine with becoming digitized, but tribal leader Aucan Huilcaman claims
that Microsoft should have consulted his people before the company
created the software.

“We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean Education
Ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee [to study
the issue] without our consent, our participation and without the
slightest consultation.”

The core issue in this case is whether or not someone can own a language….