Warlock, copyright

[Orlowsky at aol.com]

The Warlock that Pynchon has been so vocally fond of is Oakley Hall's Warlock
(Viking).

Regarding the copyright debate, titles may not be copyrighted, nor may ideas
(you have to write the idea down first and then it's only your expression of
the idea that is copyrighted, not the idea itself).  Titles may not be
copyrighted for the very reason that someone pointed out -- not enough words
to go around.  However, titles can be protected as a trademark or through
state unfair competition laws.  Thus, none of us can get away with calling
OUR novels "Gravity's Rainbow."  But the protection is limited. The title has
to be so well-known that it has accumulated "secondary meaning," i.e. you
hear the title "Gravity's Rainbow" and automatically think of the classic
novel.  And you can only prevent uses that would be likely to create
confusion as to source.  So Pynchon could probably force a movie called
"Gravity's Rainbow" to be retitled if it weren't based on his book, but can't
make Pat Benatar retitle her CD because no one in his or her right mind would
think Pynchon had anything to do with the CD.  Thus, really famous titles can
get some legal protection from unauthorized piggybacking, but most titles are
left in the public domain for everyone to use.

My favorite example of ridiculous litigation in this vein is a lawsuit by
Mead Data against Lexus cars claiming that the name "Lexus" for cars would
create confusion in the minds of the users of Mead Data's "Lexis" database.
 Mead Data was laughed out of court;  Mead Data, ever the sore loser, has
since sold Lexis.

Bob