Yet another bullshit IP ruling?

I don't watch a lot of rugby, but it's always entertaining watching a game involving the New Zealand rugby team, especially when they open the match with their version of the Ke Mate haka:

That being said, I think this is a bad idea:

. . . don't even think about performing it publicly any time soon, lest you receive a friendly visit from the Maori Ngati Toa iwi or an all-expenses paid trip to the New Zealand courts. In the first ruling of it's kind, the New Zealand Government gave the iwi, or tribe, intellectual property rights to the haka as part of a multi-million dollar land claim settlement on February 11. The Ngati Toa ruling declares the Ka Mate the brainchild of Maori chief Te Rauparaha, after his narrow escape from enemies in the 1820s.

It's probably for the best that the Ngati Toa are preventing the world from repeating the haka's story. The first section of the haka — curiously omitted at family events — describes Re Rauparaha hiding under a woman's skirt and sitting mesmerized at her "pulsating cavern."

Maoris said they were tired of companies profiting from the Ka Mate, and the deal was meant to "protect the haka from inappropriate use" said Ngati Toa chief negotiator, Matiu Rei. Prime Minister John Keys said the agreement was about "cultural redress . . . not about a financial issue or an attempt to restrict New Zealanders."

Intellectual property rulings are at the bleeding edge of modern jurisprudence, largely because there isn't universal understanding or agreement about just what the full range of "properties" might be that fall into this category.