Copyrights and Rules

Hi Yazmin there is no copyright here. Steal whatever you can safely carry away.

OOOO, can I have a big ham, I'll feed me family for a week ;-) xxx

No copyright? Hmmm... A dangerous thing to say.

Anything that's published is automatically subject to copyright - which is owned by the original author unless they sell it.

There's no copyright on ideas.

The copyright situation of writing made up of small sections of other bits writing is notoriously complicated.

A piece of writing made up of quote from famous songs is likely to cause problems on here but if you tried to enter it in Eurovision you might get sued.

"A piece of writing made up of quote from famous songs is likely to cause problems on here"

do you mean 'unlikely?'

I think it will be fine so long as you faithfully state from where the songs come - don't claim them as your own! Song title and the known singer is fine, writers of the song, even better. You shouldn't quote the whole song but it'll be fine if you use a section from it.

Clearly, taking whole sections of text or lyrics from another is plagiarisism, unless it is clearly acknowledged as the work of another. Depending on the circumstances, it's also sometimes necessary to get permission to quote a song lyric.

However, I read somewhere that titles themselves are not covered by copyright (I stand to be corrected if I misunderstood). I made a posting a couple of months ago that used over a hundred song titles. This, I understand, is perfectly legitimate.

There was a series of decective novels a few years ago (I can't remember the author) that used titles of pop songs as the titles of the books. One was called 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'.

Also, I noticed a little while ago when reading a novel by Kate Atkinson (When Will There be Good News) that she uses two very clear quotations. One was a quote from 'The Outlaw Josie Wales' (a Clint Eastwood film) and the other was from 'The Sound of Silence' (written by Paul Simon). Neither were acknowledged, either in the text or in the acknowledgements section.

Lionel Trilling once said, "Immature artists imitate, mature artists steal." It's the same with writers.

Helvigo Jenkins

This may help. I just got it from a website giving the UK rules relating to copyright law.

"Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not generally considered unique or substantial enough to be covered, but a creation, such as a logo, that combines these elements may be."

Helvigo Jenkins

Yes, I meant unlikely.

Where the position quoted above can lead to complication if the quoted pieces are put into a work made available for profit is that people may have different views on what constitutes a 'short phrase' and/or may use several short phrases from the same song in one new work.

In that instance, if there's actually some money involved, a judge usually has to decide on the copyright situation.