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Writing Tip: Copyright Infringment - Keeping It Legal


Renee Stevens

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Reusing Past Tips  

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  1. 1. How do you feel about revisiting past tips that have been featured in the blog?

    • It's a great reminder and good for authors that weren't around when the tip was originally posted
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Every once in a while I like to take a look through the blog to see what has been used before that could be useful to some of the newer authors here on Gay Authors. Back in October 2012, Sara Alva (known then as KingdombytheSea) shared her experience with using song lyrics in her story Social Skills. Many authors use song lyrics in their stories without ever thinking of the repercussions that they may be facing if/when they decide to publish. I hope that Sara's experience helps some authors here at Gay Authors, and if you want to hear some input from other members, you can check out the forum thread or past blog post as well. ***Note: Please keep in mind that this was written back in 2012, so some things mentioned are relevant to situations going on at the time.***

 


Keeping it Legal


by


Sara Alva


a.k.a. KingdombytheSea


The Copyright Police do exist, and if you’re an author planning on publishing, it’s a good idea to keep that in mind.

 


When I wrote Social Skills and posted it on GA, I was blissfully unaware of having infringed on anyone’s copyrights. Because Connor is a violinist, music factors heavily into the story. In the second half of the book he joins a pit orchestra, and within those scenes I quoted a few lines of lyrics from a Kiss Me Kate song.

 

As I prepared Social Skills for publication this summer, I handed it off to a beta/author friend, who immediately questioned my use of the lyrics. A little Googling revealed that all lyrics from any Cole Porter musical are copyrighted, despite the fact that they can be found scattered across the internet (Here’s a page with copyright terms in the United States as of January 1, 2012). But could quoting just a few lines really get me in trouble?

 

Yes, it could. Even those lyrics sites can get in trouble, and though they may be too numerous to completely eradicate, some have already been sued. One just got hit with a $6.6 million default judgement a few days ago.

 

Bottom line: When you publish/post something that contains copyrighted material, there’s a chance that someone might see, object, and sue.

 

I didn’t want to risk it, so I took a second look at my work and decided to edit out the lyrics. Unfortunately, I’d really entangled them with the emotions of the scene, and cutting them out proved difficult. Meanwhile, my friend found a link to a site with information on Cole Porter’s Trust and encouraged me to poke around a bit and see what the legal process for obtaining permission entailed.

 

The Trust put me in contact with the publishing company that now owns the rights to the lyrics, and that led me to their Permissions department. I had to email a copy of the book as well as separate PDFs of the pages containing the quoted lyrics. The initial price I was given was $255, which was too steep for me.

 

I did some more digging (or pestering of the Permissions department) and eventually found out the price was calculated based on an estimated 10,000 print run. Many businesses have not caught up with the ebook trend—I won’t have a ‘print run’, and while I’d love to sell 10,000 copies, I wouldn’t mind starting off with a more obtainable goal. I emailed back and requested a 2,000 copy print run, and voila! the price dropped to an affordable $55. I mailed my check and received a ‘lyrics used by permission’ copyright blurb to stick in the front of my novel.

 

Different publishers/companies will obviously have their own pricing structure in place—my friend recommended this article about author Blake Morrison, who wound up paying around $7,000 for his song lyrics usage. And I’ve already been warned off quoting Dr. Seuss, whose estate evidently does go after people for copyright infringement.

 

From my experience, I’d give the following advice to authors:

 

* Think carefully about any lyrics/books/short stories/plays/movies you quote from in your story. You never know when you might get the urge to publish or even make an ebook to release for free on Smashwords. Better to be safe than sorry, and it’s usually easier to reimagine a scene before writing than it is to change one that’s already comfortably sitting in your story.

 

* If you are planning on self-publishing, you should be extra vigilant about copyrighted material, as you won’t have a publishing company to take any of the blame should you be sued. Also, some newer epublishing companies might not do thorough checks for copyrighted material, so as an author, it’s always best to be aware.

 

* If you decide to quote copyrighted material or already have it in your story, do your research. It doesn’t hurt to question the companies that hold the rights or to try to negotiate with them. Perhaps they will one day catch up with the times and start taking a percentage of ebook sales instead of asking for a lump fee up front, but for now you can always ask for their pricing structure and do what you can to get to a mutually agreeable fee. This might involve lowering your estimated print run and then reapplying for permission should you exceed that number of sales, or quoting fewer lines.

 

Though it may not make a whole lot of sense—especially in the case of song lyrics, where quoting almost seems like free advertising—this is the way the world currently works. Even when you attribute quotes to their rightful owners, you might have to pay for the right to use them in your story.

 

So don’t forget to keep it legal, and happy writing everyone!

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  • Site Administrator

There's a 'fair use' exemption to copyright, but be careful using that exemption, too, because it's not always clearly defined what constitutes 'fair use'.

 

For example, using the name of a song, movie, book,, etc., is generally considered fair use. Quoting part of a song, movie, or book, however, can be questionable. Some things are allowed, others are not, and it's always better to get permission than to find out afterwards that you've crossed the line.

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  • Site Administrator

It can be as explained in this article on fair use. Essentially, the lyrics are owned by someone else. Even if you know them and attribute them, you can't distribute your own copy without permission. It would be like someone taking one of your stories and putting it on their own website without your permission. Even if they say who wrote it, it's still a copyright theft.

 

As per the link I've given, there's different rules for educational vs non-educational uses. For people used to academia, this can be a source of confusion because the rules they're used to no longer necessarily apply when they try writing fiction.

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This is one of the reasons I have to re-write my favorite story and  have to come up with lyrics of my own now.

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"Think carefully about any lyrics/books/short stories/plays/movies you quote from in your story. You never know when you might get the urge to publish or even make an ebook to release for free on Smashwords. Better to be safe than sorry..."

 

But posting on GA is publishing, so I'm confused

  • Like 4
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It seems to me that if your making any money with your book or website then copyright owners want paid for using their material.  Otherwise there's no basis for a legal claim.  These companies aren't interested in what someone does if there isn't any money involved. 

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I'm with Zombie - anything posted online is publishing, for all intents and purposes, twitter is publishing just as much as Barnes and Noble. 

As for 'fair use' policies, stick to less than 10% of any original material and you shouldn't go too far wrong. Copyright laws state that a student can photocopy up to 10% of a text book etc without it being illegal, so i'm going to sort of go with that.

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While it's true, that if no money is involved, there's less likely a chance for copyright infringement to be enforced, the owners of that same song/lyrics/snippet may object to its usage. Copywrite legal fine print always says things about not reproducing any portion of this book/article without express permission. Try writing some fan fiction of Anne Rice's characters (as well as some other well-known authors) on a public forum, even for free, and you may find a cease and desist letter in the mail.

 

It's best to tread carefully and seek out permissions where appropriate, or not use things that aren't of your creation in the first place if you can't be sure.

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  • Site Administrator

I do know many publishers are no longer allowing any copy of copyrighted material such as quotes from books, articles, or songs. To be safe, I just don't do it.

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For a novice like me in the writing world, I think I'd rather be safe than sorry and I'm glad this article was re-blogged.  The article tells you a lot and the comments even more  :)

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Like most things you need to understand the rules - in this case the law - if you're going to break them.  Some authors / copyright owners seem relaxed about fan / slash fiction, which definitely breaches the law if copyright still exists - look at the huge amount of Harry Potter and other stuff on the web - but, as Mann points out, others like Anne Rice strictly enforce their rights under the law.  This Wiki page is a useful overview :)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction

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  • Site Administrator

Know your source material. If you choose to write fan-fiction, either have proof the author has publicly stated permission (such as their website/blog) or contact them to obtain permission.

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  • Site Administrator

Sasha, if you check the link I gave you'll see that 'fair use' for educational purposes is much more relaxed than for non-educational purposes. That's why students may be allowed to photocopy upto 10% of a book, but that doesn't mean an author can quote upto 10% of another book or song.

 

I was going to use the lyrics of a chorus of a song in my latest story, but after reviewing the fair use criteria again, I'm going to change it to just the song title and leave the lyrics unstated (though it does help in my case that most of the lyrics in the chorus are the song title repeated a few times :P).

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