I want to use the title of a 1970’s song as part of an local advertising campaign is this a copyright no-no?

Posted Friday, January 1, 2010 by admin


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.
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Posted in Law & Ethics

5 Comments on "I want to use the title of a 1970’s song as part of an local advertising campaign is this a copyright no-no?"

  • coragryph said on Jan 1st, 2010 at 8:15 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.

  • teacupn said on Jan 5th, 2010 at 5:23 AM:

    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.

  • FRAGINAL-NOYPI AKO said on Jan 6th, 2010 at 10:05 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.

  • Kacky said on Jan 10th, 2010 at 10:04 AM:

    You can use that phrase in print. They can’t copyright a phrase.

  • lare said on Jan 12th, 2010 at 7:37 PM:

    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.

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