Heds and theft

ToddJBehme · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:22 pm

Blanp's comment about the "How Swede it is" hed brought to mind a question I've had for a long time. Can a headline be plagiarized? And if so, at what point does using something that's been used elsewhere, such as "The Write Stuff," go from being plagiarism to cliche to so old it gets banned by a desk chief? This is an interesting issue to me, as I've scratched lots of good hed ideas for fear that maybe I had heard them somewhere before.Thanks.[ July 26, 2004: Message edited by: Todd J. Behme ]

majorbabs · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:50 pm

I don't know the answer but our local paper used this headline, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" for a weather story and I wondered what the count was on that hed's use in the last, oh, 10 years.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:03 pm

I've often heard that it's not plagiarism to steal titles, but I can't find substantiation of that with a quick Google search, and I haven't taken Copyright Law yet.Are headlines titles? My instinct says yes, because they're the closest things newspapers have to titles.During the Florida recount, my paper ran the headline "Tally tussle in Tallahassee" as our A1 strip on the day the ballots arrived at the state capitol, and a week later "Tally hassle in Tallahassee" showed up in Time magazine.Does anyone at Time read the Bradenton Herald? No. It's a coincidence, and I think the likelihood of such coincidences recurring with headlines is a strong argument against considering the reuse of headlines to be plagiarism.

ToddJBehme · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:52 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
Does anyone at Time read the Bradenton Herald? No. It's a coincidence, and I think the likelihood of such coincidences recurring with headlines is a strong argument against considering the reuse of headlines to be plagiarism.<hr></blockquote>
I agree as far as coincidences go, but what if someone from another publication saw a cute hed on vacation, made a mental note of it and came back to his or her paper and used it on a story where it was appropriate? Is that OK under the title argument?

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:11 pm

It's not OK from a subjective standpoint, but my point is that coincidences are so likely, it's pointless to try and prove it.

juliette14 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:17 pm

Chalk it up as one more reason to avoid cliche, cutesy headlines.

SusanV · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:11 pm

Matthew, it's correct that titles cannot be copyrighted. I do think a hed could be considered to fall under that umbrella. And, as noted, coincidences and duplications are simply inevitable. How many publications, for example, used "Vive la Lance"? Thankfully, I don't run into this too often; our eds are very original in their own right, and desk opinions are given due consideration.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:14 pm

I didn't mean to imply that intellectual-property lawyers were waiting to descend on the next copy editor who writes "How Swede It Is." It's not "plagiarism," but it's plagiaristic.

sdespain · **Joined:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 4

Hunh. Whenever I'm stuck for a good hed for a wire story, I'll go to a few different newspaper Web sites to see what other people are using. Usually that helps. While I generally feel guilty about it, I never considered it might be plagiarism. Oops.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 10:29 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Sarah:
Hunh. Whenever I'm stuck for a good hed for a wire story, I'll go to a few different newspaper Web sites to see what other people are using. Usually that helps. While I generally feel guilty about it, I never considered it might be plagiarism. Oops.<hr></blockquote>We might check other papers for what not to use, but certainly not to lift headlines. How could anyone possibly think doing so would be acceptable?

sdespain · **Joined:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 4

Whoa, there. Nobody said "lift." It's more of looking for inspiration. Like asking your co-workers, "you got any ideas on this hed?"

pzicari · **Posted:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:55 pm

Lifting a headline is harder than it looks. What are the odds that two page designers would pick the exact same play, with the exact same head size?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:21 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Sarah:
Whoa, there. Nobody said "lift." It's more of looking for inspiration. Like asking your co-workers, "you got any ideas on this hed?"<hr></blockquote>Let's say your're stuck on a story about Ikea and you look at how other papers did it. You see "How Swede It Is." How is that going to help?
Asked another way: How do you get useful "inspiration" from a headline without copying it?
It certainly isn't like asking co-workers for help.

sdespain · **Joined:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 4

The Ikea example is a bad one. That headline, obviously, wouldn't be helpful. But looking at what angles and words other papers are using can point you in a new direction, without direct copying.Sorry I brought it up. I didn't realize you'd be so offended. Tell me which paper you work for and I'll make sure I never look there for inspiration.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:41 am

Heh. I'm not offended. Welcome to Testy Copy Editors.

sdespain · **Joined:** Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 4

Thanks. I've been coming for a long time now, just never felt moved to chime in until today.

ShiningPath · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 2:09 am

When writing hedlines, it is impermissible theft to troll other newspapers' websites (or Lexis/Nexis) in search of their clever turns of phrase on a particular story.
But that doesn't mean you can't use publicly available information to spark your imagination. When I was writing headlines before the arrival of the web, I would hide in the newspaper library and thumb through the Dictionary of Catch Phrases. It often helped me write heds that I (and occasionally others) thought were clever. Today's hedline writers should be doing web searches for slang terms or word combinations that might relate to the hedline they're writing. But they should stay way from other media outlets' completed products.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 2:57 am

Man. The next thing you'll tell me is that you keep a thesaurus on your desk.

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:57 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Let's say your're stuck on a story about Ikea and you look at how other papers did it. You see "How Swede It Is." How is that going to help?
Asked another way: How do you get useful "inspiration" from a headline without copying it?
It certainly isn't like asking co-workers for help.<hr></blockquote>Swede inspiration, perhaps? Sorry. Couldn't resist. Don't worry, though. I never write heds.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue Jul 27, 2004 7:54 pm

A minor observation here. One is entitled to form the view that Ikea furniture is horrible. All the more reason for using a sensible headline that conveys news..

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