Is "Gotcha Ya!" copyrighted by Chicago Reader?

Or can I freely put it on crap and sell it?

Two words?

You try to sell a mug that says “Pizza Hut”. Besides, there’s the exclamation mark.

I think Walloon has forgotten Wildest Bill’s funeral plans. (Either that or he’s some kind of spy… All good Dopers have everything ever posted here committed to memory, right?)

Pizza Hut is a trademark.

Chicago who?
Peace,
mangeorge

I think that you could safely argue that the phrase “Gotcha Ya!” has entered the public domain.

Who you gonna sell it to? Your cow-orkers?

What does it mean, to ork a cow?

Gotcha ya!

Write a contract where the Chicago Reader gets a cut – whatever else may be the case, they have a nonexclusive copyright on the term, by the terms of the agreement for posting here. So whoever else may or may not have the right to use it, they do – and that would include the right to license its use. Besides, they’re highly motivated by money, so it’s said. :slight_smile:

Cow-orkers are engaged in nanutechnology, of course.

Can you explain the grey-goo scenario, in which the shazbots use all available materials to produce copies of themselves?

I haven’t heard the term (Gotcha ya!) used, and have only seen it in print beginning here. Is it going to replace “Ka Ching”? Does it mean the same as the very popular, but plainer “Gotcha” of years past?
Let’s say I screw up, and you catch it. Do I get to say "Gotcha ya!’, and make it seem that I pretended to screw up so that I could put the faux pas on you?
Or is it not that complicated? :wink:

BTW; Ork - ancient scottish, meaning “to tip over”. They even named an island after the practice.

I was ignorant of any previous thread on this subject by someone named Wildest Bill (what did he do to get banned, BTW?). So the link provided by *Larry Mudd[\B] above was helpful. But note that in the original thread from 2001, Wildest Bill only realizes quite into the thread that he put the “ya” in there by mistake, that it was superfluous. Simply “Gotcha” was what he meant to write. That is why I asked, above, “Two words?”

Anyway, as Larry Mudd said, the colloquialism “Gotcha” has been long in the public domain. You can’t copyright it. (And if you want it for a commercial product, you want to trademark it, not copyright it.)

On the off chance that mangeorge is serious, “cow-orker” came from an item in the Dogbert’s New Ruling Class newsletter, which is a part of the Dilbert Zone, an online appendage of Scott Adams’ comic strip. The item posited that a “co-worker” is someone who works with you; a coworker is a bloke what orks cows. Ewwww. Ork being a euphemism for, um, er, you know. I may have been the first to bring the term to the SDMB. For that dastardly deed, I must humbly accept your brickbats and fruitcakes (please saw fruitcakes in half before launching.) :stuck_out_tongue: Hey! That brickbat was corked! Is that you, Sammy?:wally ::Nott taps chest twice, points at cool Sam::

“Cow orker” predates Dilbert by some years. It was in use in the AFU usenet group a decade ago at least.

“Doe snot” has a similar provenance.

This…

…would indicate that the original poster and the Chicago Reader each have the right to exploit the commercial value of a post, if indeed their were anything original or commercial to exploit.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I flay one with TB.

Gotcha Ya!

There, I’ve posted it, so now I can use it.

“Snot Stew”, probably local to Bakersfield kids in the 60’s, brings back warm memories for me.
And thanks, AskNott for the explanation. I didn’t think it was a typiing error. :slight_smile:

I guess the way is clear for me to launch my “Fucko off!” T-shirt empire.