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knikkki

Joined: 13 Jun 2005
Posts: 3145
Location: Davis, CA |
Fair Use.
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I've just been doing quite a bit of research on this ... I've got a bunch of song lyric snippets, two full songs, and 1 movie quote, 1 tv quote. WTF? Could I make it more difficult?
But, Chris ... It seems like you should have been able to use that Beatles quote. I'm still trying to understand this, and obviously I'm not a lawyer, but a lawyer directed me to a legal site.
The Fair Use law allows you to quote small portions of copyrighted material without obtaining permission. I can't really find a hard/fast defintion of it, and I'm not sure it applies to commercial fiction. Still looking.
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Rule 4: The More You Take, the Less Fair Your Use Is Likely to Be
The more material you take, the less likely it is that your use will be a fair use. As a general rule, never quote more than a few successive paragraphs from a book or article, or take more than one chart or diagram. It is never proper to include an illustration or other artwork in a book or newsletter without the artist's permission. Don't quote more than one or two lines from a poem. Many publishers require their authors to obtain permission from an author to quote more then a specified number of words, ranging from about 100 to 1000 words.
Contrary to what many people believe, there is no absolute word limit on fair use. For example, it is not always okay to take one paragraph of less than 200 words. Copying 200 words from a work of 300 words wouldn't be fair use. Nor would copying 12 words from a 14-word haiku poem. However, copying 2000 words from a work of 500,000 words might be fair. It all depends on the circumstances.
To preserve the free flow of information, authors have more leeway in using material from factual works (scholarly, technical, and scientific works) than to works of fancy such as novels, poems, and plays. This is true especially where it's necessary to use extensive quotations to ensure the accuracy of the information conveyed.
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There's one scene in my book that can absolutely NOT be re-written, so I'm fucked if I can't get the permission.
Oh ... just found this article, might be worth reading. I am reading it now.
http://www.writing-world.com/rights/fair.shtml _________________ My Book
My Myspace
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Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:09 pm |
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chris
Site Admin

Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 3833
Location: People Republic of Northern California |
Re: Fair Use.
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knikkki wrote: |
I've just been doing quite a bit of research on this ... I've got a bunch of song lyric snippets, two full songs, and 1 movie quote, 1 tv quote. WTF? Could I make it more difficult?
But, Chris ... It seems like you should have been able to use that Beatles quote. I'm still trying to understand this, and obviously I'm not a lawyer, but a lawyer directed me to a legal site.
The Fair Use law allows you to quote small portions of copyrighted material without obtaining permission. I can't really find a hard/fast defintion of it, and I'm not sure it applies to commercial fiction. Still looking.
Quote: |
Rule 4: The More You Take, the Less Fair Your Use Is Likely to Be
The more material you take, the less likely it is that your use will be a fair use. As a general rule, never quote more than a few successive paragraphs from a book or article, or take more than one chart or diagram. It is never proper to include an illustration or other artwork in a book or newsletter without the artist's permission. Don't quote more than one or two lines from a poem. Many publishers require their authors to obtain permission from an author to quote more then a specified number of words, ranging from about 100 to 1000 words.
Contrary to what many people believe, there is no absolute word limit on fair use. For example, it is not always okay to take one paragraph of less than 200 words. Copying 200 words from a work of 300 words wouldn't be fair use. Nor would copying 12 words from a 14-word haiku poem. However, copying 2000 words from a work of 500,000 words might be fair. It all depends on the circumstances.
To preserve the free flow of information, authors have more leeway in using material from factual works (scholarly, technical, and scientific works) than to works of fancy such as novels, poems, and plays. This is true especially where it's necessary to use extensive quotations to ensure the accuracy of the information conveyed.
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There's one scene in my book that can absolutely NOT be re-written, so I'm fucked if I can't get the permission.
Oh ... just found this article, might be worth reading. I am reading it now.
http://www.writing-world.com/rights/fair.shtml |
Commercial use is the key, K. My publisher has very deep pockets, they aren't going to leave their ass hanging out for a lawsuit from Sony or whoever owns the Beatles catalog now. Fair use for an academic paper and fair use for something you get paid for-- different. Give you an example. I read the script to Basic Instinct before it was ever filmed. The entire movie is built around Rolling Stones songs. The specific songs are named in each scene in the script. There's not one Stones song featured in the finished movie. Guess why?
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Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:39 pm |
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