Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 18:20:50 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Q: What do you call two MDs who travel back in time to cure pivotal figures and protect the timeline?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 05:58 PM 4/11/05 -0400, Ernest Lilley wrote:
>Hard to copyright a phrase that predates copyright law.

True.  I don't think you can copyright a phrase anyway.  Trademark it
maybe, but not copyright...otherwise I'd just write a program to generate
all possible combinations of the 5,000 most commonly used words, print the
results and send them to the PTO and sue everyone for infringement.  If I
had enough paper anyway... ;-)

You might, however, want to be careful of the confusion that using an
existing title within the genre of SF (STF, Skiffy or whatever) might
generate.  It could hurt you..."Oh, yeah, I read that years ago..." <ding!>
No Sale!

How about calling it "Doc Holiday and the Time Rippers" for a good pulp feel?
:-)

Or "A Longitudinal Study of the Medical Side Effects of Resublimated
Thiotimeline On World History" for a more scholarly journal appeal?

-- Mike B.
--
Plagiarism prohibited.  Derive carefully.