Shouldn't those of us who do real karate call people claim it as a style without Okinawan Roots?

That's the problem in Karate already. Too much political BS and not enough quality training. Everybody worries about the political stuff. Why on earth would you want to add even more political control to something that already has so many ruling associations and organizations and wannabees that are trying to build their Karate kingdom, it's not even funny. What makes you think that Okinawan Karate politics are better? What do you think 'Beikoku (style name)' means? It's 'American (style name)'. They don't even put us on the same level. They separate their style from the American style (what is being taught to westerners), meaning we are not equal but they have no qualms about taking our money for the Beikoku certificates. You already got all these guys who want to be chiefs you got no Indians left. I'd say it's plenty messed up already and doesn't need more politics. Anytime money or politics and control enters something it inevitably goes the wrong way.

I prefer focusing on training and finding the best teachers I can. Screw the certificates and ranks and political BS. I found incredible back alley teachers with no rank at all. You want to shut that down?

I say everybody is responsible for themselves and has to assume the responsibility to find good teachers themselves. Getting stuck with a bad teacher is a learning process too and also an indication of how much you do understand your martial art to recognize a good or bad teacher and take appropriate actions. We want everything guaranteed and it better be served perfectly on a silver platter. That's unreasonable and unrealistic expectations.

What you are saying is basically done for some protected products and brands....Cheese X for example is from country Y and it can be made only there, with that specific recipe (30% goat milk, 60% cow milk, 1% mint e.t.c)...Everything else, from everywhere else, with the same or slightly different recipe, is to be called different. So this goes back to a main issue.....

It depends how do you see a martial art in general..There are some that are preoccupied with rankings, others with sports competitions, others with practical self-defense, others with preserving their original art and others with all kinds of things...

The thing is that a martial art by definition, is a form of expressing one's self (art), through combat moves (martial)..That is a definition. So by definition, what we are doing, is basically learning something, that we do it and express it in our own way according to our own character and believes...

So it is not really an intellectual property. Of course every knows that Karate originates from Okinawa and Okinawa gets a lot of respect for this.:)

Then what did Itosu introduce into the Okinawan school curriculum in the early 1900's?

I thought that the modern characters- meaning "empty hand"- where a homonym of previously-used characters that meant "China hand".

Also, I have no idea what you mean by "returned to the rightful culture". Do you want to take everyone who knows karate and ship them to Okinawa?

Edit: alright, I've always seen it spelled "te" before...

This fellow indicates two sources that predate 1910 as using the "Empty Hand" characters:

http://www.newpaltzkarate.com/article/Article1SA.h...

This guy says the reading started to change from "tode" to "karate" around 1895:

http://www.minrec.org/wilson/pdfs/History--Origin%...

Dates aside, aren't ALL karate systems rooted in Okinawa? Shotokan was taught by an Okinawan who learned his craft from Okinawans. The styles that flowed from that (Kyokushin, Wado-Ryu, etc) would then ALSO have roots in Okinawa. Even Tang Soo Do is basically Shotokan with Korean names.

Focus on training, not on this kind of nonsense. Move past the jargon and naming and quantifying, and progress into transcendence. What matters is the present moment, that is all. Does one care that a fine bubbly drink is called champagne or sparkling wine if it tastes wonderful? Concern yourself with what is in the bottle rather than what is on the label. All of this worrying about labels and not enough focus on training, as if the other people using the word karate are criminals. We need more ohana in the arts, not to divide ourselves up into smaller and smaller factions with different flags and commanders.

Name and words are for people's convenience in passing ideas from one to another. It's convenient to use the terms as they are. We shouldn't change it.

If the group legally gains the rights they will cause slight chaos and inconvenience for everyone, but it won't be the end of the world.

I see where you are coming from even though see many holes in your argument. Not here to debate with you though brother. Don't you think it's beating a head horse though? Too many schools claim to teach karate, even arts not affiliated with the main styles. There are many many different forms. Not even all are legitimate. And there isn't one sole governing body recognized by all that we can expect to turn to for the real thing? See what I mean?