Does anyone know about whether one person can own the rights to a song title?
I've just bought the new album by Lamya and there's a song on it called Judas Kiss.

funkyfine said:

Copyright of a written work, such as a story or song lyric, vests in the author at the moment it is created i.e.. in written form. However, it is most unlikely that copyright could be enforced over this (the title) part of a work, unless it formed a substantial part of that work (which would have to be contested in court) and the use of the title did not fall within one of the areas of legal exemption e.g. where you are permitted to 'quote' reasonable but not excessive portions of work for the purposes of criticism.

A mark, such as a registered trademark would be a different matter - but this would normally occur when a previously registered mark is used in a song title - when one would expect references to the song title to carry the registered trademark symbol.

There was a story that Mr Spielberg (or a company owning rights to ET) sought to enforce a right over an electro dance tune in the early '80s called 'E.T. - phone home' by The Extra T's. I know the 12" single was only available on import in the UK, and it became very difficult to get hold of. The story went that Spielberg claimed he had copyright over the letters ET used in that order and in that context, but I strongly suspect it was either a marketing ploy for the record, or a Registered mark was being contested.

Provided a registered trademark is not being violated, and an artist is releasing a different song that happens to carry the same title as another, different - albeit copyrighted song, then there would seem to be little likelihood of action being taken. And we can all think of different copyrighted songs which carry the same title.

(On a separate point, if an artist bore a distinct resemblance to Prince and went by the name of 'Pr1nce', the album was called 'Purple Reign' and the titles included 'Let's Go Crazee' etc.., the artist would likely have to claim it was a legitimate parody in the event that he was challenged as trying to pass himself off as the genuine article).
[This message was edited Wed Aug 28 7:15:04 PDT 2002 by langebleu]