The O-word

In The Guardian, Guild President David Edgar says that while the organising committee for the London Olympics have decided not to take action to prevent novelist Robert Ronson calling his new book Olympic Mind Games, we should be wary of any attempts to copyright language.

Most expression involves reference to something real in the world. Most of our "experience" and indeed our "imagination" are formed from the image-making of others. Writers and other artists are rightly concerned about protecting their own copyright, but they should be equally concerned with the shrinking of the public domain. Ronson's refusal to be cowed into changing the title of his novel is a victory for the idea that there is more to free expression than the right to advertise.