[WEB4LIB] Re: Determining originality

[Dan Lester]

Sunday, December 24, 2000, 9:55:51 AM, you wrote:

TLM> --- Evie Fieseler wrote:

TLM> Would a Google search be enough to turn up book titles if indeed we had seen
TLM> that name in some children's book somewhere?

TLM> --- end of quote ---


TLM> I vote no.  I think one would need to consult RLIN, OCLC, Books-in-Print, and
TLM> various non-"electronic" book catalogs available only in a large library.  You
TLM> could also ask some experienced children's librarians.

Agree with this.  However, none of those would necessarily turn up the
name of the character you might have seen, particularly if it wasn't
the protagonist (e.g. Nancy Drew).

TLM> The web is big, and Google is terrific -- but it can't peer inside big
TLM> bibliographic databases.    Am looking forward to reading others' responses to
TLM> this one.

True enough.  This is the problem of the "hidden web" that many have
written about and that most of us are aware of.

But, why are you worrying about it?  Unless it is a name like Miss
Marple, Nancy Drew, Hercule Poirot, or some other name like that, does
it really matter?  Don't you think that lots of books have characters
named Joe Smith or Susie Jones?

As always, I'm not a lawyer, but unless you're appropriating the name
for gain in such a way that it damages the other author's income or
property, I'd bet it won't matter.  But I'm not a lawyer.

happy holidays

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com