Okay, this story is several months old, but I remembered about it just recently and I thought it would be interesting to bring this up. I'd like to hear your opinions about this.

Apparently, there's a dispute between Greece and Macedonia about history. The Macedonian government named one of the country's airports after Alexander the Great. But Greece protested, claiming that Alexander was one of 'theirs', not one from Macedonia.

To whom does Alexander belong? Does he belong to the territory he was born in? Does he belong to his descendants? Is there such thing as 'historical copyright', if you get my meaning?

Very interesting matter to bring up.

Fortunately, naming things after living beings usually requires the permission of the "named" person, just like the Presidential libraries they like to build to commemorate U.S. Presidents.

Now I could name a library the Reagan Library or a park the Ronald Reagan Park, but not sure if I could pull off a Ronald Reagan Library since there is already one built in his name. The first example excluded his first name and while maybe in reference to the former president, it might be instead honoring his entire line of family.

For prestigeous locations, like maybe Carnegie Hall, it might be difficult to get away with it in the same city or country. But there is certainly nothing to keep Russia from opening a structure with such a name. We could dispute and debate the inherient rights to use the name since the U.S. is where Dale Carnegie originates. Again, doesn't use his first name.

Alexander the Great surely refers to a single figure within history, but again... there is no such thing as an international trademark protection in concerns with people carrying such names. Even if they should put such laws into effect, do we want to tie up the International Court of Justice with idiocy? After all, what's the big deal?

Not even sure what relief I am due should someone use my name without proper permission. After all, any records of me kept by the government doesn't pay me any royalties for using it for labeling, tracking, cataloging, tracing, etc. Martin Luther King was a great man. They've commemorated a national holiday. Should we forbid other nations from making such gestures (formally mis-used "jesters" here) in recognition of the same person? Should we be forbidden to make reference to a great artist in making it a name of a controversial movie, hence The DaVinci Code. It doesn't list out his given name, but we know who they mean.

Baseball players within the MLB Player's Union lost when trying to copyright the use of their names and their performances. After all, history is owned by everyone... otherwise we'll be teaching it only with permission (and paying surchages).