Mentioning band names and songs

Hi
Copyright laws and using real people in works of fiction can potentiality be very tricky . Some bands have turned their name into a brand and is subject to copyright, as are some names , Ziggy Stardust is copyright protected .Dead people can't sue you , but living ones might .

stephenf said:

Hi
Copyright laws and using real people in works of fiction can potentiality be very tricky . Some bands have turned their name into a brand and is subject to copyright, as are some names , Ziggy Stardust is copyright protected .Dead people can't sue you , but living ones might .

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You mean trademark, don't you?

Afaik, you can write that a character's favourite record of all time is Ziggy Stardust and that Suffragette City is playing on a cassette player in his beat-up Datsun, but you wouldn't be permitted to name your character Ziggy Stardust under that.

And song lyrics are definitely a no-no unless they are in the public domain. It's why films/television almost never have their characters sing 'Happy Birthday'.

Naming people and things that are in the news, notable, etc. usually is permissible, but quoting more than a few words from a copyrighted work may require permission. Using actual, living people as characters can get one into trouble. It is safer to avoid such things, dreaming up a band, musicians, and music.

I was going to do what you mention, but the more I thought about it the more trouble it seemed to be, so I dropped it.

Wilde_at_heart said:

You mean trademark, don't you?

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I think Brand and Trademark are overlapping words and both have historical connections to words that mean , Identifiers. Branding Cattle and leaving your mark for example . But there is a subtle difference . Levi jeans , is a brand , but their trademark is, two horses pulling a pair of jeans . The Rolling Stones can't copyright their name but the words Rolling Stones with their lips thing under it, is a registered Trademark , and if you printed it on a T shirt , you would be in trouble .

Wilde is dead on the money with the Ziggy Stardust examples.

King Neptune said:

Using actual, living people as characters can get one into trouble. It is safer to avoid such things making dreaming up a band, musicians, and music.

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Agreed. You're perfectly fine loosely basing your subplot on something that happened to a real band, as long as in your book, it happens to a band you've made up. But trying to use the real band's name and members is asking for a lawsuit. Depending on the nature of the plot and the suit, you might win (or come out ahead financially, due to the publicity), but who needs the aggravation and risk?

(I'm not a lawyer, but I met one once.)

stephenf said:

Hi
Copyright laws and using real people in works of fiction can potentiality be very tricky . Some bands have turned their name into a brand and is subject to copyright, as are some names , Ziggy Stardust is copyright protected .Dead people can't sue you , but living ones might .

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Dead people might not be able to sue you but their estates sure can.

I'm not an IP lawyer but I know IP holders take protecting their work very seriously and that whole area of law is very complex.

For instance, I know that when documentarians capture radio music in the background, they have to get the rights to air it or they can't use the footage.

I also know that positive-brand association doesn't necessarily mean that the trademark holder will grant permission for use. One author I knew wanted her protagonist to ride a trademarked brand motorcycle. She had to change it after the company denied her permission to use the brand name. (You wouldn't think one little word could cause so much difficulty.)

Stories based on life stories have their own difficulties because, as it turns out, people own the rights to their stories. I have no idea where the line between a story "inspired by" and a biography is. I suspect the only person who does is an IP lawyer specializing in life story rights. On top of that, there is an additional web of rules considering the use of celebrities.

It is so much simpler to just not go there.

I have my characters going to a Widespread Panic concert in Lincoln. Since there actually was such a concert in Lincoln, and since nothing untoward happens, I figure I'll take the chance for the sake of the verisimilitude.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Song titles aren't copyrighted, but the lyrics will cost you to use.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

In Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days, an entire chapter takes place at the infamous 1969 Altamont Free Concert, and the Rolling Stone are mentioned quite a few times. It's an historical event and fair game. I wouldn't make Mick Jagger a character though.

Angry Guy said:

I have my characters going to a Widespread Panic concert in Lincoln. Since there actually was such a concert in Lincoln, and since nothing untoward happens, I figure I'll take the chance for the sake of the verisimilitude.

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That's fine. anything that would have been reported in the press is fair game.

There was a thread like this a few months ago, and someone pointed out several works of fiction that were set at certain events. The only things to avoid are quoting lyrics, and even then a little is fair use.

King Neptune said:

The only things to avoid are quoting lyrics, and even then a little is fair use.

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A very little. "Fair use" is very much in the eye of the IP lawyer. Given how short and repetitious the lyrics of most songs are, a good lawyer could make even a small excerpt seem like a significant part of the whole.

Which may be beside the point, since you said you weren't planning on using lyrics, but since this thread will hang around forever, well...

But yeah, referring to specific titles should be fair game.

Casey Karp said:

A very little. "Fair use" is very much in the eye of the IP lawyer. Given how short and repetitious the lyrics of most songs are, a good lawyer could make even a small excerpt seem like a significant part of the whole.

Which may be beside the point, since you said you weren't planning on using lyrics, but since this thread will hang around forever, well...

But yeah, referring to specific titles should be fair game.

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It's also a matter of how one uses lyrics. If they are used in a way the amounts to being a review of a song, then one line would not create a problem, but if the same line were used as something that a fictional band was singing, then there might be trouble.

Reviews and parodies are given wider range in the statutes, but that's not reason to use anyone's lyrics, if you can get around it.