To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=155832
6 messages

Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts

16 Oct 14 - 03:08 PM (#3669715)
Subject: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer

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-


16 Oct 14 - 08:13 PM (#3669791)
Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer

anybody got an answer?


16 Oct 14 - 08:32 PM (#3669793)
Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Jack Campin

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.


17 Oct 14 - 03:49 AM (#3669839)
Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Joe Offer

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-


17 Oct 14 - 04:27 AM (#3669841)
Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Jack Campin

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.


17 Oct 14 - 10:38 AM (#3669907)
Subject: RE: Limits for Publishing Lyrics Excerpts
From: Amos

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

A