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Copyright and book?

by Undercovercash
6 replies
Hi Guys

My book is almost all finished and Ready to be edited. I am just putting in the final touches of adding in quotes, Parables, references to a couple of studies and mentioning of a couple of celibriities.

What are the rules about this kind of stuff?

Can I just put in any quote I like in my book as long as I mention who it is from? "To do or not to do" Shakespeare?

And Parables can I just find them from the internet and copy paste them in?

What about mentioning names of celebrities and writing facts about them? Like for instance that that Henry ford was broke 3 times in his life and admitted to being so?


Kind regards-Undercovercash
#book #copyright
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Originally Posted by Undercovercash View Post

    Can I just put in any quote I like in my book as long as I mention who it is from? "To do or not to do" Shakespeare?
    Generally speaking, yes, for simple quotes, you can just do the quote and identify who said it. If the quote is obscure, you may want to add a footnote identifying the source. If it's a popular and well-known quote, you may not need to worry.

    If the quote is extensive, it would be best to seek permission to use it, unless the work being quoted is in the public domain.

    And Parables can I just find them from the internet and copy paste them in?
    Not unless you copy it from a public domain source. A parable may be well known, but the specific telling of a parable could be protected by copyright. So, you'll want to make sure to use a public domain source.

    What about mentioning names of celebrities and writing facts about them? Like for instance that that Henry ford was broke 3 times in his life and admitted to being so?
    Just make sure your facts are actually facts and not opinions. Use multiple credible sources to confirm. Keep a record of your sources.
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  • Profile picture of the author Undercovercash
    Thanks a lot Dan.

    How can I check if something is part of the public domain?
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  • Profile picture of the author mikemcmillan
    Not a lawyer. My advice doesn't mean much in this matter. But simply citing the source of a quotation doesn't automatically give you the "right" to use it if you don't already have that right. It depends on a lot of things such as the length of the original content and the relative percentage of that content you use. If a poet writes a poem of only 8 lines and you publish six of those lines in your publication, you might say, "Hey, I only used 6 lines." But those six lines constitutes a significant proportion of the content as a whole.

    And--no one can tell you for certain how much is safe to use (other than a judge in an infringement suit). It's always best to get permission. Go the the copyright office site and download Copyright Basics. It has guidelines.

    Aside from my possibly worthless opinions above--good luck with your product!!! --Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author Henry White
      Originally Posted by mikemcmillan View Post

      Not a lawyer. My advice doesn't mean much in this matter. But simply citing the source of a quotation doesn't automatically give you the "right" to use it if you don't already have that right. It depends on a lot of things such as the length of the original content and the relative percentage of that content you use. If a poet writes a poem of only 8 lines and you publish six of those lines in your publication, you might say, "Hey, I only used 6 lines." But those six lines constitutes a significant proportion of the content as a whole.

      And--no one can tell you for certain how much is safe to use (other than a judge in an infringement suit). It's always best to get permission. Go the the copyright office site and download Copyright Basics. It has guidelines.

      Aside from my possibly worthless opinions above--good luck with your product!!! --Mike
      That NOT worthless, Mike! Especially with so many newbies eager to outsource and so damned averse to writing they think they can get away with minor edits from PLR, etc., and some of that magical, three-button software for 'spinning.'

      This is a common issue that the Copyright Office - and the Supreme Court - has dealt with repeated under U.S. Copyright Office - Fair Use

      In our hyper-litigious society and with the global economy in the dumpster, more than ever it's prudent to err on the 'safe' side and leave the cutting edge and expanding the envelop to others with deeper pockets. The OP seems to be more interested in formatting and giving proper credit for quotations.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rozanne
    I am not so expert in this area, but I think you should enter particular quotes in Google. You will see the results, which helps you to figure out; how many times its being used. If it's copyrighted, then better way take a permission form author, or webmaster, or publisher to use or simply mention the source....
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  • Profile picture of the author Henry White
    I would be willing to go out on a limb here and state unequivocally that most people in most niches are only going to be confused - and annoyed - if you overdo this.

    My first choice is UNC:
    Quotations

    Others prefer the OWL at Purdue:
    Purdue OWL: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

    The only iron-clad rule everyone agrees upon is being consistent in matters of formatting and style.
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