: Re: Are there copyright issues with a novella title if it's a famous line? If you use a line or phrase from a really famous poem that most can recite as a title for a novella, is it stealing?

@Alves689

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I, too, am not a lawyer, so cannot give you advice. I can, however, tell you how I think I would act in your circumstances, as I understand them.

My understanding of copyright protection is that it does not protect every word or line in a work; it protects only significant portions of a work. As such, I can quote a work verbatim without compensating the copyright holder as long as (a) the size of my quote is not substantial, and (b) I don't decrease the value of the copyright holder's interest in his or her own work. I believe that, in practice, such quotations can even arouse curiosity in readers and thus increase value of the copyright holder's work.

That said, I take the Second Court's decision, as quoted above from the Rights of Writers site, as their interpretation of trademark law, not copyright law. In trademark law, I see a title, cover artwork, and publisher's logo as the "brand" or "trademark" of a book or album. It seems to represent the work and who produced it. As long as I present my work with a sufficiently different cover, subtitle, font, or other characteristics, I should be able to use the same title. The key is that I make it clear that I am the author of the work and that the work cannot reasonably be confused as coming from another author, even though I may be playing another riff, so to speak, on the same theme.

For example, Amazon lists two book titles, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and one even has an obvious Star Trek theme. But I would expect that no court would sustain a claim from Gene Roddenberry's heirs that either of these violate his copyright to the opening sequence of the series, and I certainly don't confuse it as that opening sequence or having been written by Gene Roddenberry.

I might also publish a book with the same title as long as it is clear that this is not a product of the Star Trek franchise. It may be my commentary on the franchise, or how I see that Star Trek has foreshadowed reality, but not a work from the same writers, directors, and/or producers.

But as I say, this is all just my view of the issue. If you need advice about your particular use of a line from a song or poem, please seek the opinion of a qualified trademark and copyright attorney.

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