Hello. I've just been made aware of your blog and would like to inform you that
"Blaugustine" is the registered and copyright title of my blog since 2003 and on
my website since 2001. You are welcome to verify this
at: http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com/ and www.nataliedarbeloff.com/blaugustine.html. I also
have a mirror-blog with Blogger (Blaugustine's other blog)I'm sure you didn't
intend any infringement and probably didn't know that the title was already
taken so I'd appreciate it if you would now change the title of your blog. Thank
you and best wishes.
I have been aware of this woman and her behavior-that-resembles-bullying for a while. I believe she's in the UK. Let's just say that there used to be more blaugustines on the web and that her methods can be fairly unpleasant.
Any thoughts? You can email me if you don't wish to make your comments public. Thanks.
[edit] Interesting. Just found this on http://snipurl.com/2e7sy [inventors_about_com] --
"What cannot be copyrighted? [...] Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans ..."
So I could copyright my lovely writings in this blog, but not the name of the blog. More to ponder.
4 comments:
Your thoughts about being able to copyright the text of your blogs - but not the title seem to be borne out by the below:
From the UK Intellectual Property Office:
You can copyright:
literature, including novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database
No mention of titles. It is also unlikely that the statement about "blaugustine" being "the registered and copyright title" is accurate because, again from the UK Intellectual Property Office, "there is no official copyright register".
If the individual wishes to "protect" her use of, and prevent others using, "blaugustine" I believe the only route is to trademark the string of characters.
This seems excessive - but there are excessive people out there.
Applying the "reasonable person" standard - characterized by someone I worked with in the UK some time ago as "in the view of a person riding the No. 10 omnibus in the High Street" there would seem to little likelihood of the two blogs being confused - nor the writers thereof.
Then again, should you be concerned about "cease and desist" orders from this individual? My view - the Internet is a very large place and the US and the UK are separated by much more than a large pond.
No doubt, the string of characters "blaugustine" is very clever (I have always thought so) and the people who came up with it separately in both space and time are to be congratulated for their cleverness. But that's all. The cleverness of one is not diminished by that of another (not a zero sum game?) - and clearly your use of this particular string of characters is much more likely (again in the view of the omnibus-riding individual) be be due to your name than any copying of someone else's idea.
Apologies for rambling - hope (some of) the above is (sort of) clear. :-}
Hi again. How exactly am I being a bully? Wouldn't it be simpler if you contacted me directly instead of making snide remarks about me when you don't know me at all? Yes, I'm in the UK and am not hiding so why can't you talk straight to me instead of about me to other people? My email address is in the left-hand sidebar of my blog.
I just happened to come across your blog because I got a Google alert mentioning the name "Blaugustine". I left what I thought was a courteous comment at your blog, so I'm bewildered to be accused of bullying and being talked about instead of talked to. Why this unfriendliness?
It seems to me confusing and unproductive to have blogs using the same title, especially if one is largely visual (like mine) and based on a cartoon character I created called Augustine (hence the blog of Augustine).I'm a professional artist/cartoonist and writer so obviously these things matter to me.
But I am not being "excessive" and certainly not issuing a "cease and desist" order! My Augustine books are copyright and people identify my Blaugustine blog with the character. But good heavens, this is a storm in a teacup! If you're happy to let there be confusion about same-name blogs, then go ahead and keep the same name, I'm not going to do anything about it.
I just wish you would have addressed me directly and personally, perhaps we may even have something in common.
Oh, and I forgot to ask you what you meant by this:
"I have been aware of this woman and her behavior-that-resembles-bullying for a while. I believe she's in the UK. Let's just say that there used to be more blaugustines on the web and that her methods can be fairly unpleasant."
Wow! I'd love to know how I could possibly have got such a mafia-like reputation? Please enlighten me. What are these "methods" I use and what is my behavior and with whom? It's all news to me and sounds really fascinating, maybe I could draw a comic strip about this new evil side of me?
How convenient to have an example of her writing style. Nope, no one could mistake you for her.
Your research is quite right. In the U.S. (I have no idea about UK laws), titles have no copyright. On the other hand, everything you create has a copyright as soon as it is "fixed" in a medium. Using a © copyright mark can be useful but is not necessary.
So I'd say just keep using blaugustine. If trademarks enter the picture, I don't know how that works. But trademarks, by the way, belong to those who register the trademark, not to those who first used the mark (something residents of a certain virtual world have been learning from Linden Research, Inc.).
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