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| Fenuella Sarah Jessica Parker Sheen-Swan |
When I was still writing
my trollfic, I was expecting that all my reviews would, of course, be flame reviews. (I did get a kick out of people getting annoyed over nothing, but the kick got old soon enough when I had to start arguing with people who actually share my personal viewpoint.) However, there is this person who got mad at me over having a fanfic that
shares a title with hers.
This is a screenshot of the review:
Actually, titles are not covered by copyright.
Proof?
"The good news is that song titles are not copyrightable. The Code of
Federal Regulations provides that: “words and short phrases such as
names, titles, and slogans” are “not subject to copyright and
applications for registration of such works cannot be entertained.” 37
C.F.R. § 202.1(a). Case law confirms this, although at least one case
suggests that a title that is completely fanciful and arbitrary, such as
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” might be entitled to copyright
protection. However, that does not seem to be an issue here because you
have suggested the title is a common phrase. Moreover, because the title
is a common phrase, it would not be entitled to copyright protection
even if song titles could be copyrighted because in order to
obtain a copyright, the work must be original. Therefore, you should not
be held liable for copyright infringement for using a song title as the
title of your movie. The bad news is your movie title will not be
copyrightable either."
I don't think that One Less Lonely Gurl/One Less Lonely Girl is copyrightable because
many fanfics have already used this phrase as a title. Justin Bieber has never sued any of us, however, no matter how awful most fanfics with this title are. I did apologize to her over something that isn't my fault at all, then she gave me a rather unexpected positive review on my story, trying her best to back me up despite all the flame comments that my story actually deserves.
Now, without further ado, the Mary Sue of the other One Less Lonely Gurl, Fenuella! She has got to be the most annoying-looking sue I drew so far. Just becose...