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Post by torainfor on Sept 9, 2008 8:25:40 GMT -5
How does one go about getting permission to quote another's work in your own? In my case, it's song lyrics.
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lexkx
Full Member
How nice to know that if you go down the hole, Dad will fish you out.
Posts: 125
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Post by lexkx on Sept 9, 2008 10:05:47 GMT -5
To my limited knowledge, anything less than 4 lines can be quoted free of charge, though it's polite to acknowledge your sources. More than that, and copyright must be requested and noted. Cec Murphey begins his copyright request process by contacting the author and/or owner of the copyright, explaining what he's writing and how he's hoping to use the author's work in his and then including a sample of his work as it references the author's work. He says this goes over better and much more smoothly when he already has a contract in place than when it's a WIP he's hoping to get published.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Sept 9, 2008 13:43:50 GMT -5
Song lyrics are completely forbidden!
Unless it's a song that 1) is old enough to be in the public domain, 2) is something you wrote yourself or otherwise own the rights to, or 3) you pay to obtain written permission from the copyright owner to use it in your publication.
Song lyrics are an automatic red flag in book editing.
Consider summarizing the pertinent lyrics instead.
Jeff
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Sept 9, 2008 14:14:56 GMT -5
Surely they can't be completely forbidden. I've seen several books with song lyrics used in them, most of them songs from the 70s or 80s, so they'd still be under copyright. It's never whole sets of lyrics, usually a line or segment of a line. I imagine it is no different then using excerpts from books still under copyright, you seek permission and likely pay royalties, right?
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Post by torainfor on Sept 9, 2008 15:01:15 GMT -5
Why do I get the feeling the copyright fee would be more than what I'd earn on the book? Maybe I'll save it for the movie.
Now the question is, should I reference the specific song at all? It's cool and haunting but fairly obscure. If I identify it, people can look it up and do the whole multi-media thing. But would that be too cheesy? (Cheesier than putting down the lyrics?)
What was that? I thought I heard a voice. It said, "It depends on how vital it is to the story!"
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