copyrights, etc.

Jade

Wicked Angel
Joined
Apr 14, 2000
Posts
1,846
Hi

I was wanting to refer to a couple of song titles, brand names, bands, etc. in a few of my stories, but didn't b/c I was concerned about copyright infringment. Should I be?

All answers appreciated. Thanks!

~Jade
 
I'm NOT a lawyer, so this is just a personal opinion based on what I've seen in books and and printed stories.

The song title, and quoting a line or two to set a mood is not something that you need to worry about. Having a character use a brand name product in the context of a story isn't generally an infringement of the trademark. Especially if it's used as the maker intended it to be used.

Where you might run into infringement problems is quoting an entire song, or significant portion of a song. Even then, if it's attributed to the author, and not presented as your words, it's not likely to cause a problem.

Where you might run into problems with brand names is if you present them in a manner that isn't consistent with there intended use. If for example you have a character who thinks Country Crock (tm) soft margerine is the best lubricant for anal sex, it's prbably better not to use the name. The company might take exception to having their product 'advertised' in such a manner.

If your characters encounter songs, products or famous people in the course of your story in a natural and believable manner, there's not much that you need to worry about. Especially if you're not making any sort of profit from your use of their copyrighted or trademarked material.
 
WH,

Wow!
What a reply... and very informative!!
Thanks so much!

~Jade
 
OMG I actually knew something!!!!

Okay, so this is like, 4 months WWWAAAAAAAYyyyyy to late, but still, I happend to have encountered this particular problem when I was involved in creating our high school literary mag. You know how high schoolers are. We wanted to split the thing up into sections (we did) and use the lyrics of a song on each section to tie the whole thing together. Not a happening thing. It turns out that you may freely use the titles to songs, books, mags, movies, etc. all you want, those aren't copyrighted unless there is a specific copyright on them. To use the lyrics in any way shape or form, you have to have permission from the copyright owner.

Take a for instance. Say I wrote a story, but I wanted to refer to a story written by Jade. I can legally say "Oooh Bob, I loved it when you read 'Fuck me sillier' it made me hot!" said Jason. You cannot say "Oooh Bob, I loved it when you read 'I wanna stick my cock so far up your nose you'll scream in ecstasy' from 'Fuck me sillier' it made me hot!" said Jason. At least not without the copyright holder's persmission.

I gets fuzzy when there is no fiduciary gain by doing this. For instance, using quotes as signatures on the boards. Other than Lars & Co. at Metallica Inc., whose to care?

You'll notice this is why most critics don't reprint parts of the books/music they're hacking into.
 
I hope Puffs don't get me in trouble.

Looking at this thread I wonder about tradmark names?

Would it be alright to use the name Puffs in my chats and threads since that is the name "or tittle" but not that I mention that used the third fourth and fifth Puffs in the box since they to a box of Puffs as a paragraph is to a story?

Just wondering

ANiceGuy
 
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