Quotes copyright

Posted on December 21st, 2008 | by Admin |

Quotes copyright
According to the copyright law, even the quotes of spoken or written word by anyone who made them are in theory subject to copyright protection. If you use these in a professional work, then you will have to ask for permission. But how is this regulated? Do I have to ask permission for every word ever uttered? In that case, everyone will be silent very soon. What do the law regulations say about using quotes and how does the copyright apply? To use a famous quote, Mark Twain wrote in his Notebook on May 23rd, 1903: “Whenever a copyright law is to be made…, then the idiots assemble.” Luckily there is a “Fair Use” treaty which allows for research purposes and for non commercial uses the use of copyright protected material, but there has to be “sufficient acknowledgement” stating whose work the quote is taken from, ergo who the actual author of the quoted message is. It is a little bit easier when using stuff which is already public domain, like the Bible, or the aforementioned quote by Mark Twain, but how about completely benign stuff, like the faceless and unacknowledged quoting of some blue paper published by Microsoft? For instance, there is a bug in the system, and Microsoft is issuing a release, saying how to fix the issue, their Knowledgebase is full of such issues. You run a website, which, for a subscription, helps users fix their computers at home, there is a forum, tech help, instant messenger help, perhaps even remote desktop help. On the website you post the item from the knowledgebase. Is that copyright infringement? Yes. Although the message is posted without the author listed, if you follow the terms of use, written by the same Microsoft people, you’ll find out that all the material on any of their web sites is copyright protected. Your professional use of their blue paper does not fall under the fair use clause, because you make money with the web site, you need to obtain written permission to use any such quoted material. Does the Mark Twain quote ring again in your ears, especially the second part? Nevertheless, many people quote in their commercial books copyrighted material. Just recently there was an interesting law suit, where a youngster, Steve Vander Ark, assembled through time and over the Internet a very comprehensive and extensive Harry Potter Lexicon, still available online. When he attempted to publish it in hardcopy form, J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, who own the rights to Harry Potter movies sued and won, barring him from releasing the lexicon, despite the fact that they admitted using the online lexicon to refresh their memory or check facts.

Media And Copyright