Using Celebrity's Names in a Song?

[astroninja]

HELLO Jelly beans and funky beasts!There is some peanut butter on our brains and we were just wondering:Does it violate any, like, legal fuggly oggly rights if we use a celebrity's name as the title of a song or within the lyrics of a song? Say, we sing about the greatest man on Earth, Chuck Norris, can he sue our asses off, even if the song is complimentary of his majestic powers? And if so, if we spell his name as Chuck Norr|s instead of Norris, is it just as bad karmically?We were just wondering. We're Asians based in Singapore, in Southeast Asia and we're not sure if the laws are applicable from region to region! Would appreciate all the hands and the help and claps from anyone who's reading this! Here is a fish for you as thanks!<///\\---<Also some beans!o o o o Thanks! Oh and if you have MySpace, do drop us a hi! We love meeting other musicians from all parts of the world! Makes us giggle!www.myspace.com/astroninary

[davewalton]

Jun 26, 2008, 8:45pm, astroninja wrote:Does it violate any, like, legal fuggly oggly rights if we use a celebrity's name as the title of a song or within the lyrics of a song? I think there's a lot of songs with famous names, like this short snippet from a Tim Wilson song... www.DaveWaltonMusic.com/PrivateArea/Lot ... e.mp3There was a thread not too long ago about this and there were dozens of songs listed.One thing to keep in mind if you're planning on submitting the music for film/television... songs with proper names, names of specific places, things like that, they're many times too restrictive and specific to be usedful for a wide variety of projects. One of the Taxi screeners at the Road Rally said that one guy they screen for has a standing rule "no proper names". HTH,DavePS - Couldn't resist giving a listen to your music... good stuff. You'd also like the music of one of my favorite "unknown" bands... Otto's Daughter:www.myspace.com/ottosdaughter"Mars" is probably my favorite track

[astroninja]

Thank you kudos you are the mojo man! It has been of great help.So legally, we don't violate anybody if we use somebody's name in a song? Thanks for listening to our stuff too. We are flying our flighty wings over to that MySpace band you recommended as well and see if we digging the dogma doodle tunes! ASTRONINJA

[deantaylor]

One thing to watch out for is that if you use a celebrity name to personify something ... like a value or a feeling ... Like 'Joe Celebrity is a great husband' .. something may turn up about the celebrity to make your statement less valid .. maybe we find out Joe Celebrity was/is actually cheating on his wife in his private life. Now your song is less valid.Dean

[spiritinthesky]

I'm sure its cool to use anyones name?

[zoom]

One of my favorite songs is I Kissed Walter Mathau by Billy Harvey.... I would say this... feel free to use the name, as long as you're not slanderous (meaning, don't make up bad stuff about him, though saying you hate him is ok). Chuck Norris is a public figure, so there really isn't a problem. Hope that helps!

[milfus]

the easiest way around this is to use an alias, or make it absolutely true.if you use a nick name, you can get away with just about anything, friend of mine, wrote a song about his ex girlfriend, and I made em change it from her full name, amanda, to manders, which was her nick name, and she tried to sue, but due to the generalization, couldn't proove it was about her, so he just denied it was about a real person, and walked.food for thought

[wheelingwv]

To concur with Zoom, my lawyer once answered this question by saying that it's fine to include a celebrity's name as long as you're not saying anything about him/her that could be considered slanderous.