boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (03/01/86)
> From: csd2!krantz (Michael Krantz) >> You can't copyright a title. > This is true. > In theory, anybody who > wanted to publish a story or novel called "Gravity's Rainbow" > would be welcome to (though a publisher or magazine editor > would be unlikely to consider use of the title justified > by the material.) Like there probably won't be another > novel titled "Moby Dick," but, for instance, there has > been in the past, and will be again, a book called (as > Joyce Carol Oates' recent work was) "Solstice," since > that work wasn't authoritative enough to pre-empt the > title. One of the most obviously examples of title re-use is Ralph Ellison's THE INVISIBLE MAN. Probably the most bizarre is the case of two separate novels with the same title coming out *from the same publisher* within a few months of each other --- THE DEEP, one by Peter Benchley and the other by John Crowley (the publisher of both was Doubleday). Titles cannot be copyrighted (though they can be trademarked), but I believe that re-using a *distinctive* title is strongly discouraged. Common word titles (such as, to use your example, SOLSTICE) are quite likely to be re-used, but distinctive titles, such as GRAVITY'S RAINBOW are not. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM