Giving Credit Where It's Due

[flyer333]

I am a person of limited higher education but I seem to remember (may be wrong) that a correctly written piece has footnotes that delineate credits for any quotes. Quotes may take the form of song lyrics, specific passages from written works, etc. Is there any requirement for footnotes at Lit? It seems many "borrow" such things. If on the off-chance you decide to vew my writings don't be surprised to see references to footnotes where applicable...not that you have to read them

 

[BlackShanglan]

I tried this once, for about a page, and hated the effect. Yes, it's true that footnotes are typical in formal academic writing, but I think in this genre they're a problem. If you feel the need to attribute, I recommend endnotes, which are less likely to break the flow of the piece. Better still, no indications in the text and a note at the end.

Shanglan

 

[flyer333]

End Notes

Not familiar with the term. My interest is not assigning credit but removing liability.

It's pretty sad when the "common" person knows what "liability" means.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Typically, in copyright matters, one must prove loss of income in order to prosecute. On the whole I would think you safe. If they really choose to dispute, it's not attribution they will query, but whether you had permission.

 

[cantdog]

Au contraire, mon frère.

Ignorance of the law has never excused anyone from culpability in violation of it. It is a blessing to know the ropes.

Shanglan means to suggest that you need place no numbers nor asterisks in the text, but merely indicate, in italics or in parentheses or something, at the end of the piece, your attribution, as, e.g.:
"Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), lyrics by Jimi Hendrix, Arch Music, BMI--reproduced by permission" or whatever it may be.

This will safeguard your liability and leave the reader free to enjoy with no footnotes.

cantdog

 

[brightlyiburn]

Typically, in copyright matters, one must prove loss of income in order to prosecute. On the whole I would think you safe. If they really choose to dispute, it's not attribution they will query, but whether you had permission.

I would like to think they had better things to do than go after smut writers, anyway.

 

[rgraham666]

I don't know about that. Do you know how many underemployed lawyers there are out there?

 

[brightlyiburn]

I don't know about that. Do you know how many underemployed lawyers there are out there?

I didn't say they did. Just that I would like to think so.
Come on, let me have a little bit of blissful naivete!

 

[flyer333]

SHIT!

And I thought myself above smut. STOP GRABBING MY ANKLES!

 

[CharleyH]

Typically, in copyright matters, one must prove loss of income in order to prosecute. On the whole I would think you safe. If they really choose to dispute, it's not attribution they will query, but whether you had permission.

Too familiar with copyright and it depends on country. Intellectual property lawsuits are difficult to prove even if you have copyright. It can cost upwards of 500,000 to a million. Depends on country of lawsuit. Even if you do balk for your piece, as I went though . . . any large company can disprove you, and the cost is almost too much, in fact can be awful for the individual against company. Sorry, get emotional on this issue. But sorry Shanglan, no it does not rest on loss of income. Much more. But maybe I am emotional, and not reading initial question.

OK loss of income, as Shanglan says . . . one does not have to prove much here in Canada, our laws are sloppy on this. Proof is in date, and who can prove what happened first, and any corporate US company can hire lawyers to research, and prove. Don't mean to be a bitch, but to sue a big US corporation with the possibilty of losing will cost at least 5,000 just to take a case here, and research, and court dates . . .

Many IDEA's are had every day, someone could steel yours . . . word for word if they chose? Well protect and double protect self. Lit is good, because even if there is a steal, there is date, and witness/witnesses? And Laurel is good about copyright and standing up for all of us.

But it depends on what you are doing, where going, how many witnesses.

Damn, I used to know all this crap . . .and get emotional when it rises, had it happen twice, and never again! Sorry, ranting now.

Best advice: I have said.

I hope this makes sense. Been through the gamut. Bastard corps.

Hence my penchant for loving films like Alien/s. :| . . .

 

[brightlyiburn]

Well, I'll tell you what, suing someone for your product/lyrics/whatever placement in their sex story is rather frivolous, especially if they're not making any money on it.
So if you live in the good ol' US of A, you could have some fun with that. Like dangling two different carrots in front of a Republican...do they go after the sex story or do they go after the frivolous lawsuit? Either way, they'll end up looking like hypocrites.

 

[CharleyH]

Well, I'll tell you what, suing someone for your product/lyrics/whatever placement in their sex story is rather frivolous, especially if they're not making any money on it.
So if you live in the good ol' US of A, you could have some fun with that. Like dangling two different carrots in front of a Republican...do they go after the sex story or do they go after the frivolous lawsuit? Either way, they'll end up looking like hypocrites.

My point was they did, and continue too. I could go on

 

[weed]

Footnotes at Lit would seem a tad bit unnatural at Lit. Why not give credit in the text? Something like:

He kept thinking he was just a voodoo chile, right out of a Hendrix song.

Or:

As he watched her uncle take her away, Sara became Poe's Annabel Lee.

 

[minsue]

Footnotes at Lit would seem a tad bit unnatural at Lit. Why not give credit in the text? Something like:

He kept thinking he was just a voodoo chile, right out of a Hendrix song.

Or:

As he watched her uncle take her away, Sara became Poe's Annabel Lee.

Footnotes, as in numbered and on every page, would be very unnatural here, but a brief credit at the end of the story isn't. I've seen it a number of times and it doesn't detract from the story at all.

There are times when writing the credit into the story as you've done works well, but not always.

 

[Lisa Denton]

She loaded the vibrator with fresh duracell batteries (Duracell is not responsible for any pornographic actions which might take place after their batteries is sold and installed in this story) and put it in her, huh, where was I?

 

[Weird Harold]

Is there any requirement for footnotes at Lit? It seems many "borrow" such things. If on the off-chance you decide to vew my writings don't be surprised to see references to footnotes where applicable...not that you have to read them

Most of the songs, poems, and other "borrowed" passages fall under the Fair Use provisions of US Copyright law and the Berne Convention.

Fair Use allows for quoting short passages of copyrighted works for reviews or as "color" in a work of fiction. Attribution of the piece is desireable, but nor actually required.

Footnotes, Endnotes aren't required in Fiction. The proper way to acknowledge the use of copyrighted material within a work of fiction is to add the appropriate copyright notice to yours:

This post Copyright 2005 by Weird Harold
Portions Copyright 2005 by flyer333

However, the context of the portion of your post I quoted put it under the Fair Use principle and don't really require a copyright notice because it's obvious I'm NOT claiming your words as my own.

 

[thebullet]

In my magnum opus, Death by Fucking I deliberately inserted quite a few quotes from books, TV series, songs, movies, etc. just as an exercise in verbal masturbation, I guess. It amused me to do so.

Since I was trained as a history major, I of course knew that I should properly attribute all of these quotes. But who the heck wants footnotes in a porn piece?

What I ended up doing was keeping a log of my quotations from popular culture and offered said log to anyone who wanted it. Actually, I looked at it as a kind of a challange to the reader. Someone who was of a similar mind, (believe me, those are few and far between) might enjoy an excersize in identifying as many quotes as possible along with their sources, then try to match them with my crib sheet.

I had about 1,000 emails about Death by Fucking, it even won two Golden Clitorides Awards, but only 3 people ever asked me for my crib sheet.

I guess I'm just too fucking weird for the general population of porn readers.