Copyright Problems?

AS I was searching for any updates for our next Safeholdian tome I noticed that there is already a book by the title of "Hells Foundations Quiver" by W.T. Keeton, and I was wondering if that produces any copyright problems. Can two books have the same title if they are not in the same subject area or even remotely confusable?
Are title's copyright? Will David (or more likely his publisher) need to do a name change?
I must confess to some small confusion on this point.

Larry

Larry wrote:AS I was searching for any updates for our next Safeholdian tome I noticed that there is already a book by the title of "Hells Foundations Quiver" by W.T. Keeton, and I was wondering if that produces any copyright problems. Can two books have the same title if they are not in the same subject area or even remotely confusable?
Are title's copyright? Will David (or more likely his publisher) need to do a name change?
I must confess to some small confusion on this point.

Larry

Good question, I have on a number of occasions noticed books for sale that have the same title as one I have read and wondered how that was legally handled. Drak might have some excellent insight on this.

Eh Drak?

[librarian hat]
Titles are not copyright protected. It is entirely possible to have multiple books with the same title--even books with similar genres or themes. Go to Amazon Books and type in the title First Contact. You'll find half a dozen science fiction books by various authors, a couple series titles, and some non-fiction books. There is no legal conflict.
[/librarian hat]

SWM wrote:[librarian hat]
Titles are not copyright protected. It is entirely possible to have multiple books with the same title--even books with similar genres or themes. Go to Amazon Books and type in the title First Contact. You'll find half a dozen science fiction books by various authors, a couple series titles, and some non-fiction books. There is no legal conflict.
[/librarian hat]

Look at the different media also, IIRC the Battle of Britain has a at least 20 books 1 movie 2 or 3 games by that name and god only knows how many documentaries.

As SWM said, there's no legal ban on "copying titles".

dwileye13 wrote:
Good question, I have on a number of occasions noticed books for sale that have the same title as one I have read and wondered how that was legally handled. Drak might have some excellent insight on this.

Eh Drak?

DrakBibliophile wrote:As SWM said, there's no legal ban on "copying titles".

dwileye13 wrote:
Good question, I have on a number of occasions noticed books for sale that have the same title as one I have read and wondered how that was legally handled. Drak might have some excellent insight on this.

Eh Drak?

And I might add that this was hashed over the the snippet index back in August, with the same result.

Oh yeah books can have the same title. I get people in the store (work at Barnes and Noble) all the time "I'm looking for a book called Mercy". Me "Sure, now there are several authors who have used that title. Do you know the authors name or would you recognize it if I read it to you?" Them "No, it's just called Mercy, my friend told me about it." Me "Ok, well what's it about maybe I can narrow down the category." Them getting angry now "I don't remember. Look just show me the section where all the Mercy books are and I'll go through them." Me "Well ma'am the books are organized by category and then by author so all the books called Mercy won't be shelved together. Is there any information about the book you can remember?" Them "You're no help I'll just go elsewhere." True story.... Working at a book store is good in a lot of ways but you really get to see a LOT of stupid.

Olegreyowl wrote:Oh yeah books can have the same title. I get people in the store (work at Barnes and Noble) all the time "I'm looking for a book called Mercy". Me "Sure, now there are several authors who have used that title. Do you know the authors name or would you recognize it if I read it to you?" Them "No, it's just called Mercy, my friend told me about it." Me "Ok, well what's it about maybe I can narrow down the category." Them getting angry now "I don't remember. Look just show me the section where all the Mercy books are and I'll go through them." Me "Well ma'am the books are organized by category and then by author so all the books called Mercy won't be shelved together. Is there any information about the book you can remember?" Them "You're no help I'll just go elsewhere." True story.... Working at a book store is good in a lot of ways but you really get to see a LOT of stupid.

Pesky humans anyway!

Olegreyowl wrote:Oh yeah books can have the same title. I get people in the store (work at Barnes and Noble) all the time "I'm looking for a book called Mercy". Me "Sure, now there are several authors who have used that title. Do you know the authors name or would you recognize it if I read it to you?" Them "No, it's just called Mercy, my friend told me about it." Me "Ok, well what's it about maybe I can narrow down the category." Them getting angry now "I don't remember. Look just show me the section where all the Mercy books are and I'll go through them." Me "Well ma'am the books are organized by category and then by author so all the books called Mercy won't be shelved together. Is there any information about the book you can remember?" Them "You're no help I'll just go elsewhere." True story.... Working at a book store is good in a lot of ways but you really get to see a LOT of stupid.

Heh...that's where you need good metadata and a very user-friendly interface, or knowledgable assistance like yourself. There is an occasional joke on library mailing lists about people looking for "the blue book", and half-serious discussions about whether it would be useful for public libraries to make the color of the cover accessible in the catalog. My local library recently had a display of "blue books".

SWM wrote:

Olegreyowl wrote:Oh yeah books can have the same title. I get people in the store (work at Barnes and Noble) all the time "I'm looking for a book called Mercy". Me "Sure, now there are several authors who have used that title. Do you know the authors name or would you recognize it if I read it to you?" Them "No, it's just called Mercy, my friend told me about it." Me "Ok, well what's it about maybe I can narrow down the category." Them getting angry now "I don't remember. Look just show me the section where all the Mercy books are and I'll go through them." Me "Well ma'am the books are organized by category and then by author so all the books called Mercy won't be shelved together. Is there any information about the book you can remember?" Them "You're no help I'll just go elsewhere." True story.... Working at a book store is good in a lot of ways but you really get to see a LOT of stupid.

Heh...that's where you need good metadata and a very user-friendly interface, or knowledgable assistance like yourself. There is an occasional joke on library mailing lists about people looking for "the blue book", and half-serious discussions about whether it would be useful for public libraries to make the color of the cover accessible in the catalog. My local library recently had a display of "blue books".

Is that blue as the color or blue as in off color