Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts

Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Amos
Date: 17 Oct 14 - 10:38 AM

The publisher of the original is the usual point of contact for using poetry and literary quotes.

A

Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Oct 14 - 04:27 AM

I think that's true in the UK as well.

It's a timebomb if you don't get permission, rights holders can get really nasty about quotation in print.

Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Oct 14 - 03:49 AM

Yes, I do know who holds this copyright. I don't know how it is in the UK, but the US licensing agencies (ASCAP, BMI, Harry Fox, etc.) do not grant print rights. For rights to print, you have to go direct to the copyright holder and get a license.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 08:32 PM

The limit seems to be anything recognizably unique. T.S. Eliot's estate stomps on novelists quoting even single lines from his poems. So yes you do need permission, or there is a real chance that the entire print run of the book might be blocked from sale.

If you know the song's under copyright, implicitly you also know how to find out who holds that copyright.

Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 08:13 PM

anybody got an answer?

Subject: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 03:08 PM

I got an e-mail today from somebody who wants to include a single stanza of a song in a novel she's writing. The song is protected under copyright. Does she need permission for just once verse? What's the limit? Where does she get permission?

-Joe-