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hi all i dont mean to be mean thats why im asking here rather then talk to a single person as im unsure if anything needs be said as i dont know the copyright laws and the issue has appeared before i think . well anyway i was surfing netflix the other day on my ps3 and i noticed a movie from 1975 and a story here share the same title but the 2 stories are diffrent as far as i can tell . and i will not say what the movie or story are unless required to do so as dont want anyone in trouble just trying protect site authors and the readers
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I don't think
an actual title would be included, as far as anyone cares. The characters and storyline would be protected. Stories with the same names are very common on the boards, here and elsewhere. I could be wrong.
thanks
k thanks thought iwould ask cause i think i rembered reading somewhere about gaming history how game developers put out so many crappy games just to get the titles copyrighted but wasnt sure if was still the case
Trademark Trouble: Obelix versus MobiliX
Not sure if the same rules apply for this, as what you talked about, but this is the first thing that came to my head:
Trademark Trouble: Obelix versus MobiliX
-Piper
That's depressing
I've always enjoyed Asterix and Obelix, even reading them in Spanish and French and trying to read in German. Now, I will never buy another one of their books because the money might go to the lawyers who originated this fiasco. But the real culprits here are judges who do not say, "This is a frivolous lawsuit," and declare sanctions. Personally, after these lawyers second appeal to try to get the decision in their favor against Mobilix, I would have taken their houses and ordered them examined for fitness to be parents if they have any children. The greed and hubris are palpable in this case.
Probably why I'm not a judge. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Copyright is extremely stupid and convoluted thing at the moment
Originally copyright was most probably introduced at early stages of mass book printing as a means on one hand to rip off authors of books, and on another hand to have "legal" leverage against other book printers.
Now it evolved into monster that allows to sue child to the amounts of millions for one wrong click in browser. And allows to ban authors of original content from video hosting because somebody copyrighted a sound of surf or sound of thunder.
As for story names, as a rule of a thumb if there is little circled R or C after a book name - it is registered or copyrighted. But if it is something consisting of widely used words (like war or worlds) this often includes combination of font, colour, letter spacings and such.
Disclaimer: words above represent personal opinion of one single individual and are not to be considered as legal advice or as something related to actual reality :-)
It very much depends on the
It very much depends on the "recognisability" of the name or title, HB Haliki, copyrighted the name "Elanor" and title "Gone in 60 seconds, his widow successfully sued Carol Shelby to stop him producing 1967 Mustang replicas (from the 2nd movie) without paying BIG money to her as the copyright holder.
Likewise everything Disney (TM)are associated with is so heavily copyrighted to protect merchandising rights it's mental, and to add to the evil empire (joke) they recently added "Star Wars" (C/TM), we all know how recognisable everything to do with Star Wars franchise is.
It's not always even necessary to actually register a name, simply being a reconised name in a wide enough market (as was obelix) makes for a potential conflict for the courts to decide if Mobilix infringed someones copyright.
If you ask me,
it all depends upon the stories and title.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Copyright vs. Trademark
There's a difference.
In copyright law, one can't protect a title, or other short string of words, because one could otherwise (for example) copyright the word "The" or "War" or "Love" and become very rich very quickly. So Hemingway can write a book called "The Sun Also Rises" and get away with it, not least because it's a quote from the Bible, but also because one can't copyright titles. Likewise, a million authors can (and have) written books called "Fifty Shades of [fill in the blank]" and do just fine, despite that fact that it's a little bit pathetic.
One can, however, trademark names and words if they're sufficiently unique, on the grounds that it would be confusing if just anyone could build a car, call it a Lexus, or a Ferrarri, and get away with it. The hamburger outfit McDonalds has even prevented people named McDonalds from naming their restaurant after themselves, although there's a mixed record on this. Sometimes they lose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_legal_cases
In trademark cases, and in copyright to some degree, the outcome often depends on who has the most money to throw around, but not always, as the Cayman Islands case shows.
Trademark attorneys and their advisors usually go to great lengths to make sure that "trademarks" are unique, although sometimes they drop the ball, as with the famous "Lexus/Lexis-Nexis" case. In many cases, that explains why so many trade names are more-or-less nonsense syllables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LexisNexis
Note that there are also exceptions in quite a few limited "universes." The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), for example, requires one to register and use a unique "sobriquet" before one can work as an actor within their purview. So if your name happens to be Angelina Jolie, and you aren't THE Angelina Jolie, you can't make a movie and call yourself that, despite the fact that it's your "real" name. The same goes for BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, among others. Because they're privately organised corporations, they can enforce any particular rules they like, and needn't pay attention to copyright or trademark laws, although their registration of "screen names" bears considerable similarity to a "trademark."
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Toyoya's trademark
Toyota's original trademark symbol was 3 skinny red diamonds in a y pattern inside a circle. They trademarked this in Japan when they started making cars. When they came to America there was a small nut packaging company in Hawaii called 3 diamond brand with the identical trademark. For over a decade they both had the same symbol, then in the ?eighty's? Toyota changed to the t shaped ovals. I don't know if this was because they lost a court case, or if they just wanted something unique, but I believe the difficulty was from the fact they both copyrighted it locally in their countries, and when Toyota went international (and made their trademark international) 3 diamonds brand was already trademarked.
Book and story titles cannot be copyrighted
Here are three articles that mention it. The first one is the most clearly specific, but all indicate that Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans may not be copyrighted.
http://www.copyrightkids.org/cbasicsframes.htm
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/37331-to-what-extent-ar...
http://biztaxlaw.about.com/b/2010/04/21/can-a-book-title-be-...
As far as story titles being used more than one time for different stories by different authors, there have been several titles used more than once here at Big Closet. I cannot, off the top of my head, come up with any, but I have noticed it happening.
On two occasions, I have noticed a story by a new author, who was using the name of a story character whose names were part of the title of stories here as their pen name. I wrote the new author and pointed this out, but also stated that while it was legal, they might want to think twice about using the name. In both cases, the author changed their name. This time, I do know the name involved in one case, as I have been editing the serial involved, though I am not going to embarrass anyone by giving it.
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
There are plenty of books,
There are plenty of books, movies, stories, etc. that share the same title. Unless you've created a word for your title, such as Hobbit, pretty much anyone can use the same name. It may be different if you were to write "Fifty Shades of Gray" and use significant elements of the original story. Even there things get iffy, I once read a fantasy trilogy that was a very direct retelling of The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbits were called something else, and I think it was a pendant that had to be destroyed, but the story was the same.