by fred_journeyman » Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:35 am
If you don't mind, I'll weigh in on this topic. I published a magazine for 12 years, so I know a little bit about copyright and copyright infringement.
As far as someone relating a story that is published, the person who told the story STILL retains the rights to that story. They can write about it, tell it to others and whatever, without infringing upon Shania's copyrighted material. What they can NOT do without Shania's permission is reprint part of her book, even if they are reprinting the part that contains THEIR story.
The people who talked to Shania, or shared stories with her did NOT give up their rights to that story, by allowing her to print it in her book. Shania does NOT own that story. She owns the copyright to her BOOK and even though her book contains a STORY, it is obvious (or should be) that the story was RELATED to her from someone else. In short, she was simply given PERMISSION by the storyteller to share their story, not OWN it.
For instance, let's say someone wrote a book about 9/11 and let's say I was part of what happened during 9/11. Someone interviews me and I give my side of the story and they print it. Great. I can STILL go out and write my own book, using that same story in my book without infringing on the other person's printed work. If I want to, I can allude to the other person's work, but I am not obligated to do so. I would probably alter the story a bit here and there, but I do not even really have to do that.
Just because someone wrote about something that I told them may have happened to me, and I allowed them to use that material in their printed work, it does not EXEMPT me from being able to tell it to someone else, or write about it.
In the case of a printed article, for instance, when I have printed articles in the past, Modeler's Resource® always owned the rights to those articles, except in the few cases where we allowed the author to retain the rights and indicated that in the article. However, if the author wanted to, they could reprint that exact same article, using different pictures and altering the text slightly and publishing it someplace else, and they would be fine.
Copyright infringement is an interesting thing. You cannot copyright titles or ideas (which is why many books, songs and movies have the exact same title with completely different story lines) and there is a good amount of leeway when relating stories as well. I'm getting ready to produce a trailer for my screenplay "End of the Trail." That title has been used at least two or three times in the past, however I'm fine. You canNOT use a proper name if it is already being used by another entity. The rock group Chicago found this out when they released their first album with their name - Chicago Transit Authority. They were prompty sued by the real Chicago Transit Authority and quickly changed the name of the band to simply Chicago.
In a related situation, as much as Donald Trump would like to, he would have an extremely difficult time trademarking the phrase "You're Fired!" and even more of a difficult time enforcing it IF he WAS able to get it trademarked.
Each of you could publish your own book on Steve Perry or Journey and relate in first person your own particular stories of your own particular concert experiences, even though you may have shared those stories with Shania.
Last edited by
fred_journeyman on Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:40 am, edited 2 times in total.
- Fred
You use big complicated words, that's what slows me down 
