I've noticed that in economics and business, people often use catchy or interesting titles for their papers. I was wondering specifically about the use of references to song lyrics, slogans, TV shows, movies, literature, etc. in paper titles. For example,
- "Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions" references the TV show
- "Hazed and Confused: The Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia" is a pun on a movie name
- "Too Much Ado about Morgan’s Men: The U.S. Securities Markets, 1908-1914" is I believe a Shakespeare reference
My question is, are there specific legal or ethical considerations when appropriating text from (or making references to) someone else's cultural content? For example, could I be sued for copyright violation, or for misrepresenting the original work? Or is this just poor practice generally?
Specifically, in my case I want to use a tag line from a popular ad campaign. A comparable example would be: "Got Milk? The impact of Heifer International’s livestock donation programs in Rwanda on nutritional outcomes". The one key difference is that the ad campaign was produced by one of the companies discussed in my paper.
