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From: krantz@csd2.UUCP (Michaelntz)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Thomas Pynchon ( use of V title )
Message-ID: <2660016@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Feb-86 14:34:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.2660016
Posted: Tue Feb 25 14:34:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 06:40:14 EST
References: <252@entropy.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 17

> You can't copyright a title.

This is true.  It applies just as well to music (but they're
so nasty over in net.music these days that I've decided to
move back to books), where it's common to steal old titles,
as for "cover" versions of songs.  In theory, anybody who
wanted to publish a story or novel called "Gravity's Rainbow"
would be welcome to (though a publisher or magazine editor
would be unlikely to consider use of the title justified
by the material.)  Like there probably won't be another
novel titled "Moby Dick," but, for instance, there has
been in the past,  and will be again, a book called (as
Joyce Carol Oates' recent work was) "Solstice," since
that work wasn't authoritative enough to pre-empt the
title.

- Michael Krantz