I have some questions around the copyright laws for song names. I recently heard that the swedish band Caesars palace had to change their name to Caesar after a complain from the american casino. Are the copyrights law as strong the other way? Can artists claim copyrights over song titles? For example if I started a college newssite named ILoveCollege.com Could Asher Roth come and sue my ass?
The issue isn't copyright, it's trademark. Caesar Palace's the casino has trademarked its name and has to defend that trademark. My understanding is that song titles cannot be copyrighted. However, it's theoretically possible that Roth has a trademark on the phrase "I Love College" if he uses it for business, and then you could have a problem.
Okay, thanks for the info. Think I'll have to do some research on my artist then. But I believe I should be fine as long as I don't use it for a niche that clearly could interfere with the artists business. In Roth case I probably shouldn't use it as a site with party information for college, even though I can't really see any problem with that either.
Song titles are not subject to copyright protection. Titles can occasionally be protected by trademark law when the title can be proven to be directly identified with a product or organization. Here is some info on copyright music protection.