Copyright Aid

Dear all,

I have just discovered my .com domain name has the same name as a book that was published several years ago.

I would rather keep the name private, so let's just say for now that the name is "www.idealworld.com" and the book has the same name "Ideal World"

The theme for my site is essentially Life Coaching/Self-Development and the book theme is similar.

What are the relevant copyright/IP issues that I need to consider?

In the future I may like to write a book with the same name also, but am thinking now that perhaps its time to get a new domain name......

Many thanks for your help in advance!

MM.

Generally speaking titles of books alone are not subject to copyright. There are many titles which are duplicated either by accident or design. Assuming that the words in the title and your URL are pretty common ones (as in your example) then there shouldn't be any real IP issues. It is possible that the author of the book (or their publisher) might view your action in obtaining the URL as cyber-squatting, but that is subject to a different resolution process - see the Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting.
There could be a problem if you had a URL like harry_potter_and_the_philosophers_stone.com as this couuld be viewed as passing off, and the author JK Rowling is well known for protecting her "brand" (and also has the financial resources to do something about it).