I’m expecting it too. That’s why I was against making September 11 a national holiday. That and the fact that, within a few years, 9/11 will be just another holiday. Last Monday, how much time did you spend thinking about the reasons behind Labor Day? No much, huh?
“Let’s roll” has been a popular idiom for as long as I can remember. It’s idiocy to think that anyone could claim to legally own this phrase.
I don’t think acknowledging this belittles in any way the genuine heroism of Todd Beamer and the other passengers who acted to foil the hijackers on Flight 93.
[hijack]
FWIW, I think the cockpit tape from Flight 93 should be made public. Normally the FAA, or NTSB, or whoever, doesn’t release the cockpit tape from an airplane crash. But this particular crash wasn’t your typical airplane accident. This tape is part of the record of a significant historical event.
[/hijack]
RTFirefly: then people might figure out the plane was shot down.
/devil’s advocate
Are you quite sure the tape has not been released to the media? I have recently heard Todd Beamer’s final taped words – complete with the “Let’s roll” bit – during some news program or another. Had I read through this thread more fully and realized that there was controversy surrounding release of the tape, I’d have made a better mental note of what I was watching and when. 
I’d heard that the cockpit voice recorder from 93 was only made available to close relatives of the passergers and that counselors were on hand to help them deal with the trauma. Maybe a snipet has been released to the media but I don’t think the entire length has been.
Also, my understanding of Beamer’s wife’s intentions was that she did not want commercial concerns to financially exploit or tarnish use of the Let’s Roll phrase. I don’t believe she and her foundation were trying to gain from it, just to protect it from commercialism.
IIRC, some dough headed ass began making “Let’s Roll” t-shirts before the dust had even settled (Literally). He then moved to copyright the phrase so he could corner the market on the “Let’s Roll” memorabelia. Enter dough head 2, who also was moving to copyright the phrase. Enter Mrs. Beamer. listen assholes, don’t cheapen what my husband said just so you vile creatures can make a buck. The Vile creatures retort: listen lady, this is America, making a buck this way is the American Way Mrs. Beamer replies in kind: Here’s the OTHER American way dipshits…lawsuit
I hope Beamer wins.
[BILL]
This Ludacris song sickens me! A fine phrase spoken by a fine American white male, being cheapened by some black guy from the projects looking for hos. I think it should be pulled off the album! What? What do you mean the album came first? My fellow Americans, I hereby propose we invent time travel, so that we may remove this sickening, sickening Ludacris song from our radios forever.
[/BILL]
I hope nobody wins the rights to a phrase like this. All due respect to Todd Beamer, but it’s certainly not an original expression that now belongs to his estate.
Reprise made an excellent point about protecting what amount’s to a graphic design incorporating the phrase. I have no problem with his widow taking such action. But to claim ownership of the phrase seems ludicrous. But much of the world seems ludicrous to me…
Maybe ownership is not really as big a deal as I thought. The CBS Story refers to an application for it’s use as a trademark. Can anyone clarify for me the distinctions between trademark and copyright?
I’m claiming “I Do.”
Not that I’m planning to use it myself anytime soon.
I think the thing that cheapens it is how Beamers wife has been getting so much exposure. She’s everywhere - never misses a TV camera and has too many smiles way too big for my comfort. All rolled together, “Let’s Roll” gives me the creeps when I think about his wife.
She better get her ass into charity mode, and if that’s the real reason she wants attention, then so be it. But there is something that crosses the line…all the exposure, etc.
Let’s Roll - it’s cheapened by his media hogging wife and it is becoming reflective of his heroics. My understanding is that there were alot of heros on that flight who didn’t have cell phones or couldn’t get a signal. Flight attendants were bioling water that they eventually threw at the hijakcers, others were planning the attack, gathering weapons like dishes, silverware and trays, and some were resisting the hijackers to the point that they were actually frightening the hijackers.
In the end, they knew if they didn’t act, they would die, as others on the ground confirmed for them. The cockpit attack was to save their lives…possibly gain control of the plane and take it from there.
All that aside, charity should be about everyone, and Beamer’s wife is making me question all her motives. Little selfish on the attention there, Mrs. Beamer.
I think this is probably a sincere way for her to deal with her grief and “stay close to” her husband . . . But I am really getting sick of her going on and on about how her husband and Jesus, hand-in-hand, helped bring down that plane. I note that Mark Bingham’s companion has not made his equally heroic actions a platform for gay rights, which would have been very tempting for him.
YOJIMBOGUY –
For you, anything.
The fundamental purpose of a trademark is to show the origin of goods. You know it’s an authentic McDonalds product when you see those trademarked golden arches. Violating a trademark amounts to misrepresenting to the public what the origins of the goods are.
The fundamental purpose of a copyright is to protect an originator’s or creator’s right to control the copying and dissemination of his or her own work. You copyright literature, music, and art (among other things). Violating a copyright infinges on the rights of the copyright holder.
In some cases where an individual or company has both originated and uses as an identifying mark something – a phrase or picture or whatever, that “something” can be both copyrighted and trademarked. But Mrs. Beamer could not copyright “let’s roll” on either her own behalf or her husband’s, because they did not create it. Her argument in favor of being allowed to trademark it will be that it has become so indelibly intertwined with the events of Flight 93 and her husband’s utterance that everyone using the phrase will be implicitly alluding to those events when they use it.
I think that’s a stretch given that my father used to yell “let’s roll!” at us kids when we were supposed to be in the car and on the way somewhere, and that was 25 years ago.
Jodi, I thank you kindly for the clear distinction. 