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Use of titles of (Disney) copyrighted material?

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:27 pm
by Rob Peters
I was reviewing some old stuff of mine recently, and I stumbled upon a suite for clarinet and piano that I originally wrote in 1998 as "Winnie the Pooh suite." A sort of musical joke which was never published or performed as such. The titles of the individual movements were taken from the characters of A.A. Milne's books (nothing else was used, no pictures, lyrics or whatsoever).

I uploaded it to my composer page as a generic suite for clarinet and piano with all the titles removed (http://imslp.org/wiki/Suite_for_Clarine ... rs%2C_Rob) ), since I wasn't sure about the copyright status. I've read here that titles and short sentences are generally not copyrighted - but being right and getting your right are two different things and the last thing I want is a confrontation with some Disney lawyer(I think the copyright on Milne's works moved to that company?)

What would be the verdict on this? Completely ok to use the original titles, or better be safe than sorry and keep it as it is now?

Re: Use of titles of (Disney) copyrighted material?

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 12:31 am
by Carolus
Names, titles and short phrases are not subject to copyright, but they might be subject to trademark claims.