Some time ago I bumped into a topic here talking about the usage of quotes and song titles in books. The general consensus and advice was: don't.
Don't quote the songs, don't name the chapters after songs, don't use titles, don't use quotes, generally stay away or you might get sued.
Now today I've seen something that made me wonder. The new episode of Castle was titled "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This a phrase that obviously connects to the song by Nirvana which, afaik, does not belong to a public domain? Even if, it's not the only example - it's enough to take a look at TV show episode listings to find plenty of song titles/quotes used as episode names.
So my question is - do the producers go out of their way to get a permission to do it? Seems pointless as episode titles aren't very important in TV shows. They're more like little winks to the audience that most people won't even notice.
Or are TV shows somehow privileged and can do it while book authors can't?
Don't quote the songs, don't name the chapters after songs, don't use titles, don't use quotes, generally stay away or you might get sued.
Now today I've seen something that made me wonder. The new episode of Castle was titled "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This a phrase that obviously connects to the song by Nirvana which, afaik, does not belong to a public domain? Even if, it's not the only example - it's enough to take a look at TV show episode listings to find plenty of song titles/quotes used as episode names.
So my question is - do the producers go out of their way to get a permission to do it? Seems pointless as episode titles aren't very important in TV shows. They're more like little winks to the audience that most people won't even notice.
Or are TV shows somehow privileged and can do it while book authors can't?
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