Re Stan Rogers song catalogue...not really a debate. Ownership and usage of his songs was the subject of a nasty custody battle between Stan's widow and his birth family, very soon after he died. Nuff said.

Gandalf Technologies FWIW was an Ottawa company, an early local player in the hi-tech connectivity game. They made a computerized dispatch display terminal for taxis, that mounted right on the dashboard and spelled out your pickup location, without a radio call that others could overhear and use to steal your fare. (I was driving cab in Ottawa myself around this time, about 1980, hence my interest). Lacked the romance of radio though.

I'm still wondering if that's copyright protection, which I still don't believe extends to individual words since it exempts "short excerpts for review purposes" or have they actually trademarked the significant names to protect merchandising rights? I betcha, with a new movie on the horizon.

Whether or not they possess the actual legal monopoly on the use of the names, anyone can threaten or actually file lawsuits against anyone else for anything they wish--if you want to avoid legal expenses you settle out of court. This is known as "vigorous protection" of trademark or copyright, and it is practiced a lot by the Disney corp among others, because the deepest pockets always win--and it builds evidence that you actually own the terms you are defending. It is also extended to parodies and satirical imitations of trademarked entities--remember Mickey Rat?

W-O