Aphorisms and Copyright

From: Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 09:35:21 -0700

Ashleigh Brilliant comes up with pithy sayings and registers them with the US Copyright Office. To find out more about Brilliant, you can take a peek at his website at:

   http://ashleighbrilliant.com/

Brilliant claims that "the copyrights have been upheld in U.S. Federal Court." According to a 1997 Wall Street Journal article, Brilliant obtained $1,000 from Random House to license the use of the title of David Brinkley's book, "Everyone is Entitled to my Opinion." Brilliant's "original" saying was "everybody is entitled to my opinion." Random House did not acknowledge the validity of Brilliant's copyright in the phrase but paid him anyway. You can see an copy of the Journal article quoted in full in a web post at:

   http://sunsite.unc.edu/pjones/ils310/msg00073.html

The article refers to a case called Brilliant v. W.B. Enterprises, but without a cite. According to the article, this case supports the notion that "short, catchy phrase[s]" are protected under copyright law. Has anyone ever heard of this case? Anyone have a cite? Is it on the web somewhere?

Conventional copyright wisdom is that such short phrases are not copyrightable, but I haven't read the case referred to (and can't find it on the Internet).

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Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu>
UCLA School of Law '98
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1206/

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Received on Wed Aug 12 1998 - 16:33:47 GMT