[Captain Ahab]

I was wondering if you could copyright your artist name? Like RooshV or Richard Bachman.


A forum member suggested I use a pen name to shield me from any loss of public reputation do to my explicit content I would be posting/writing (I'm a public employee).

I created a pen name but I want to ensure that I can use it and not have to worry about others using it, although I heard it is impossible to copyright a name, creative or real.

I did some research and found this:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5021735_copyrigh...cheap.html

Has anyone been through this process?

[painter]

Just pick a name and write under it, i'm doing it for the ebooks I have. I started out ultra paranoid about anyone finiding out my real info because I've had a lot of death threats against me and my family but the reality so far is my audience is miniscule and I'm not that worried anymore.

The problem is keeping your mouth shut about it. Don't tell anyone who isn't going to face the same consequences as you are if your true identity is found out. That pretty much leaves nobody. Give yourself enough plausible deniability and think far ahead in time before you publish things so a determined investigator can't put 2 + 2 together.

[RedPillSchool]

The hard part is getting paid. Eventually if somebody wants to find out who you are, they just have to follow the money.

[storm]

(02-12-2013 12:07 PM)RedPillSchool Wrote:  

The hard part is getting paid. Eventually if somebody wants to find out who you are, they just have to follow the money.

Would a Nevada LLC be enough to get that protection?

[RedPillSchool]

(02-12-2013 12:26 PM)storm Wrote:  

(02-12-2013 12:07 PM)RedPillSchool Wrote:  

The hard part is getting paid. Eventually if somebody wants to find out who you are, they just have to follow the money.

Would a Nevada LLC be enough to get that protection?

No, a frivolous law suit could still pierce that veil in discovery before it's thrown out.

Perhaps a Nevada LLC holding a trust naming you as the beneficiary. You'd be protected, but you'd need some people willing to take the fall.

[Captain Ahab]

(02-12-2013 12:00 PM)painter Wrote:  

Just pick a name and write under it, i'm doing it for the ebooks I have. I started out ultra paranoid about anyone finiding out my real info because I've had a lot of death threats against me and my family but the reality so far is my audience is miniscule and I'm not that worried anymore.

The problem is keeping your mouth shut about it. Don't tell anyone who isn't going to face the same consequences as you are if your true identity is found out. That pretty much leaves nobody. Give yourself enough plausible deniability and think far ahead in time before you publish things so a determined investigator can't put 2 + 2 together.

Damn, that sounds real serious.

Honestly, I was just wondering if it is illegal for me to use another person's "creative name"

I got the name from a relative but he has not copyrighted it yet (as far as I can tell).

I figure to claim it via legal trademark and if I can, how would I go about doing that?

[Pete]

You CAN'T copyright a name. BUT, you can TRADEMARK it. It's more expensive but it protects your name better than making an llc,etc.

[Pete]

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/index.jsp

[painter]

Good point Redpillschool. If I were sued through the publisher they could find me but I don't really expect that to happen. 99% of the threats I got were from people I drove nuts and they were just blowing off steam because they were so pissed off. It's that 1% of true psychos that I worry about. My name is already all over the internet in complaint forums, not as bad as some people I worked with but it will come right up if you google it in the right context.

Captain Ahab, I would say you snooze, you lose to your relative. They probably aren't going to do anything with it anyway. Before you choose a pseudonym I would definitely spend time googling it and maybe even checking the adwords search just to see how popular or common the name is.