HW: Codex - phew

[Douglas Pearson]

On Sun, 11 Mar 2001 23:41:28 -0000, ANDREW GARIBALDI
<andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:
>I don't know what the situation is now but two or three years ago, Doug,
>as EBS, had the name of Hawkwind copyrighted

Do you mean trademarked?  I don't believe you can copyright a band name.
If it actually had been trademarked, though, every commercial usage of the
band name "Hawkwind" would be legally required to include the "TM"
designation (or the circle-R designation, once the trademark is registered).

>- this means that no-one
>anywhere can repress anything without his permission,

If this is true, then where are all the Dave Anderson releases coming
from?  (Is he paying kickbacks to Doug Smith?  That would be realllly
interesting.)

>although I wondered at the time where Dave came into this,

Interesting fact: you can own a trademark on a name that's not your own.
Next time you're in a used record store, take a look at the Billy Joel
albums (there should be tons in the budget bin).  The trademark on the
name "Billy Joel" is owned by his ex-manager, who collects royalties on the
use of the trademark, even though he ceased to be BJ's manager LONG before
the guy had any hits (that's what's called a REALLY BAD management
contract).

    -Doug (not Smith)
     ceres at sirius.com