Steven Y asked:
The song I was thinking of using was the song titled “whats love got to do with it?” I wanted that to be a catchy opener for my print ad.
Question posted courtesy of: Advertiser Blog
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Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 6:45 am
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September 6th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
That phrase is itself probably too generic to be subject to copyright protection, even though the song itself is protected.
There is a concept in copyright law call “scenes a faire”, which basically says that certain concepts, phrases or images (scenes) are too generic to fall within the originality and creativity requirement for copyright protection.
So, as long as your ad campaign has something to do with love (or the lack thereof), your use of that phrase can be considered generic use of those words, and not a specific reference to the song. However, that defense would fail if you used bits of the song, or other references to the artist.
September 6th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Yes, it’s copyright infringement. You can be sued. Artist’s have sued for a lot less. You must get permission to use the song or any part of the song for your ad.
September 7th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
The song in 1970 has already been for public use due to a long period of time and using it now will no longer be a violation of the Copyright Law. Thus, you now validly use it for your print ad.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:57 am
You can use that phrase in print. They can’t copyright a phrase.
September 10th, 2006 at 3:43 am
at least in the US, titles of works are specifically excluded from copyright infringement. if it were not so, how should we refer to these works in common usage, for example your very question would be a copyright violation because you used the words “whats love got to do with it?” in it.