Quoting Song Lyrics

[strickland83]

I have been trying to get this question answered and have not gotten a response from the Literotica administration. I had a chapter rejected because it contained quotations of song lyrics. Can any editor give me guidelines beyond "we ask that you not quote more than a few lines of copyrighted materials such as lyrics, poetry, or other stories. Please make sure the original writer is duly credited."

I did give credit to the singers and writers of the songs. I made it obvious in the text that the lines were quotations. I quoted nine lines of one song (one to three lines at a time) and twenty-four lines (one to four lines at a time) of another song. How much is "a few"? Is that for the entire book, or in one chapter, or in close proximity in the text? I didn't quote the entire song, and broke up the individual quotes with other text. I researched and followed the fair use guidelines, and other sites have accepted the chapter for posting.

I am trying to understand the Literotica guidelines so I can get the chapter accepted for posting. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Strickland83

 

[cloudy]

As I understand it, if the song is still under copyright, you can quote no more than half the lyrics. I could be wrong, but that's what I gather from a similar conversation on the AH (I think).

I've quoted lyrics before, too, and never had a problem, but it was only a verse or two, that's all. I also used one full song, but it was an old creole funeral song, and well out of copyright.

 

[CopyCarver]

The type of use of materials you're considering fall under the "fair use" doctrine which is (more or less) codified in Section 107 of copyright law.
The statutes themselves, and the related court decisions would fill a large bookcase but essentially the doctrine protects quotation of small amounts of a copyrighted work for some purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, etc. Quoting a copyrighted work as part of a short story has less protection that is afforded to a reporter or critic, but some "fair use" by fiction authors is recognized by law. It's impossible to give any hard-and-fast guidelines as to what constitutes "fair use" because legal challenges are decided on a case-by-case basis, often arbitrarily.

Legally, the four main factors in determining whether a particular use if fair or illegal depends upon:

1) the purpose of the usage--commercial or nonprofit, public interest or personal gain, etc.

2) the nature of the copyrighted work

3) the substantiality of the portion used relative to to the length of the copyrighted work as a whole

4) the effect of the use upon the future market value of the work



Informally, you're aided also by the fact that legal actions for copyright violation tend to be so expensive that most publishers/copyright holders avoid them whenever possible unless the violation is massive. In most cases, the copyright owner will either ignore minor usages or, at most, send a demand that you cease and desist from further usage. It seems somewhat unlikely that you would be sued into poverty if you quote a relatively small portion of a song, present it in written form (as opposed to a musical recording), credit the copyright holder, and publish in a "noncompeting market" such as Literotica. (There are, however, no guarantees on any of this.)

Sorry for getting longwinded here, but the regs are many and complex to the point that most lawyers don't like to deal with copyright disputes unless they're specialists.

 

[snooper]

... I am trying to understand the Literotica guidelines ...

If you ever understand any of the Lit guidelines to the extent that you can explain even one of them, please let the rest of us know.

 

[strickland83]

I finally received a reply to my e-mails to Literotica. They clarified the reason for my chapter's rejection. The e-mail requested that I resubmit the chapter, modified so that I quote less than 50% of the copyrighted work included in the submission. I was also asked to include a comment in the notes selection that I was now quoting less than 50%.

That seems to be the formula that they will accept - quoting less than 50% of a copyrighted work. I will meet their requirements by removing a few lines of the quote, thereby posting an abridged version of the chapter. My other posting sites have the complete version of the chapter, which they have had online since April 23.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Perhaps in all this, we all learned a little more about what is acceptable on Literotica when quoting other works.

Strickland83