Case 1 Theft of a Title for an Ethics Text
Seven years ago, Victor published what has become a popularethics textbook called Ethics with Applications. The book is now inits third edition. Looking through flyers for new ethics texts, hesees one with exactly the same title as his. Dismayed, heimmediately contacts his editor, who tells him that titles,unfortunately, cannot be copyrighted but are fair game for anyonewho wants to use them. Victor angrily writes both the publisher andthe authors of the other text, complaining that they have stolenhis title. They never answer him, and he remains extremely upset.He would never knowingly steal someone’s title and can’t understandtheir action. Even though what they did is legal, are they morallyobligated not to use Victor’s title? Why, or why not? Should theyat least apologize for doing so? Is there anything else they coulddo to make things right, or do they need to? Why, or why not? Iftitles cannot be copyrighted, then can this be considered stealing?Why, or why not? Is this an important or trivial issue, to your wayof thinking? Why, or why not?
