HOW TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

 

One pub tip subscriber asked: Is there anything you can quote without permission? If so, what and how much? If you quote a sentence from a book and credit the author and book title in the text, do you have to get permission?

 

In response, I’d like to emphasize several points: (1) When in doubt, seek permission; (2) obtaining permission can take as long as 4-6 months, so start early, and (3) I’ve seen “fair use” defined a number of ways, but I believe you would be reasonably safe to quote one sentence from a book along with the author’s name and title of the book (however, if it’s one line of poetry, I would definitely obtain permission). I’m not an attorney nor a permissions “expert,” so any risk you take is your own.

 

In the process of creating anthologies, I’ve read many descriptions about how to obtain permission for previously published material. Loyola Press, the publisher of my new book, Looking for God in All the Right Places, provided a thorough and concise description of this process. They kindly gave me permission to reprint the following material for my May 2004 pub tip.

 

The web site for Loyola Press is www.loyolapress.com

 

Rights and Permissions Information for Authors

 

Before a manuscript can be sent to copyediting (which is approximately 6–8 weeks after a manuscript is deemed acceptable by the acquisitions editor and other internal reviewers), the author must supply a complete list of credit lines for all of the excerpted material in the book.

 

What is copyrightable material?

• literary works
• musical works
• dramatic works
• pantomimes and choreographic works
• pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• sound recordings
• architectural works
• computer programs

 

What is in the public domain?

• works with expired copyrights
• works dedicated to the public
• works published by the federal government or by federal officials as part of their jobs
• common facts

 

When is a work copyrighted and how long before the work goes into the public domain?

 

Date of Work	Protected from	Term
Created 1/1/78 or after	The date on which the work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression, i.e., written down, photographed, recorded.	Life of the author + 70 years[1] (or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publications, or 120 years from creation[2])
Published before 1923	In the public domain	None
Published between 1923 and 1963	When published with copyright notice[3]	28 years from the date of publication, then could be renewed for 47 years, and if it was renewed the term was extended by 20 years for a total of 67 years from date of renewal. If the work was not renewed, it is in the public domain. (i.e., either 28 years from date of publication and not renewed—in public domain; or, if renewed after the first term, 95 years from date of publication)
Published between 1964 and 1977	When published with copyright notice	28 years for the first term; then an automatic extension of 67 years for second term (i.e., 95 years from date of publication)
Created before 1/1/78 but not published	1/1/78, the effective date of the 1976 Act, which eliminated common law copyright	Life of the author + 70 years or 12/31/2002, whichever is greater
Created before 1/1/78 but published between then and 12/31/2002	1/1/78, the effective date of the 1976 Act, which eliminated common law copyright	Life of the author + 70 years or 12/31/2047, whichever is greater

 

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What are some public domain pitfalls?

• Know where the work will be distributed. A work can be public domain in the US, but copyrighted in England
• Translations are original works in themselves and follow copyright rules. So, if a translation of St. Augustine of Hippo’s City of God was published in 1964 with a copyright notice, you would need to request from the publisher of the translation permission to reprint an excerpt.
• Aesops fables (older translations of them, of course) are public domain, but a “retelling” of a fable is an original work.
• Footnotes and other editorial material added to public domain works are copyrighted by the author. So, don’t quote those footnotes from your volume of Shakespeare without requesting permission.
• With the new copyright laws in force, works can actually come back out of public domain. For example, in 1995 the European Union changed their law from “life plus 50 years” to “life plus 70 years,” consequently, works by writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Rudyard Kipling are once again copyrighted. Also, certain foreign works in the U.S. restored due to the GATT treaty (Bambi would be an example of a restored copyright). To restore copyright through GATT, copyright holders needed to notify the Copyright Office of their “intent to enforce.” To see who actually did this, go to the Copyright Office Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

 

What is fair use?

        Section 107 of the Copyright Act states: “The fair use of a copyrighted work . . . for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research is not an infringement of copyright.”

        Fair use has little to do with a given percentage of a work and more with how what you would like to reprint relates to the “heart” of a work. (The 250-word limit is a myth.) You may wish to reprint only a few lines from a 500-page novel, but if these lines happen to come from a mystery novel and give away the identity of the murderer, obviously, fair use does not apply. And with poetry and song lyrics, the use of even one line requires that you get permission to use that excerpt.

Keep in mind the following factors of fair use.

·          the purpose and character of the use

·          the nature of the copyrighted work

·          the amount and substantiality of the portion used

·          the effect of the use on the potential market

 

Once I’ve determined I need to request permission, how do I go about it?

 

1.       Locate the permissions grantor.

Find the primary source, i.e., look at the acknowledgments/credit line page in an anthology or at the copyright page in a book. Determine who holds the rights to the work you’d like to excerpt. Often a book will come out in paperback after it comes out in hardcover, or even vice versa. You will need to request permission from the original publisher.

2.       Put your request in writing. Include the following in your request:

• a photocopy of the exact material you want to use (mark any excerpting or changes to the excerpt clearly) and of the copyright page from which the materials was taken (include also the credit line if the selection is from an anthology)
• the name of your publisher (Loyola Press)
• description of the work in which the excerpt is to appear
• the format of your work (hardcover/paperback/CD-rom)
• the initial print run (info. from Loyola)
• the price per copy Loyola will charge (info. from Loyola)
• the territory in which the work will be distributed (North America or World)
• publication date

3.       Wait for a response.

4.       Adhere to the contract.

• pre-publication permissions fee
• author of excerpt requests approval of entire work/chapter in which excerpt appears
• credit line
• editorial changes
• gift copies

 

I’ve put off requesting permission. How can I speed up the permissions process?

• Do research before you begin mailing out requests. Make sure that you will be corresponding with the owner of the copyright. A quick phone call to the publishing company to ensure that they hold the rights can be a good idea.
• Be as explicit and clear as possible in your letter. (See the sample letter.)
• Provide two (2) copies of your letter with space for the grantor to sign
• Encourage the copyright owner to call/e-mail with any questions
• Provide a self-addressed stamped envelope.
• Fax two copies of the letter to the publishing house. When you call the publishing house to check that they hold the copyright and to get their fax number, ask whether faxed permission requests are acceptable.

 

Keep in mind the following as you embark on the permissions process:

• Start the process early. The permissions process often takes 4–6 months to complete.
• Be well aware of your budget, but be flexible. As you are responsible for any permissions fees, you may want to decide whether you really want to use something quite expensive. (Generally, song lyrics and poetry will be more expensive than prose.)
• Understand that the copyright owner may say no. Be prepared with back-ups.
• Watch for “embedded” copyrightable material. If you use an excerpt that features someone commenting on the significance of particular lines of poetry and then that person quotes the poetry, please be aware that you’ll need to ask permission to reprint those lines of poetry even though you received permission to reprint the excerpt. (and good luck finding the original owner of the poetry copyright . . . )
• Keep good records of all correspondence and phone calls. These can be invaluable when you’re trying to get an overworked permissions editor to respond to your request.

 

After I’ve completed the permissions, what do I send to Loyola?

• photocopies of all permissions contracts or signed permission request letters
• a list of credit lines
• photocopies of any poetry or song lyrics you are reprinting in your work (this is to ensure that poetry and lyrics are set correctly)

 

Are there any good Web sites for copyright and permissions information?

 

¨        Card Catalog Searches

• ILLINET
  Searches more than 800 Illinois library card catalog systems.
  http://www.library.sos.state.il.us/io/io.html
  Click “Connect to ILLINET Online via the web” to search.

 

• The Library of Congress
  http://catalog.loc.gov

 

¨        Copyright Holder Searches

• WATCH
  Allows you to locate copyright holders in the U.S. and U.K.
  http://www.lib.utexas.edu/hrc/watch.html

 

• The Copyright Clearance Center
  Another site that allows you to search for copyright holders.
  www.copyright.com

 

¨        Informative Copyright Law Sites

• Copyright Office of the United States
  The most reliable resource for information on copyright law.
  http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

 

• FACE
  Friends of Active Copyright Education. This site provides a wealth of information on copyright laws (most of it taken from the Copyright Office Web site, but presented in a user-friendly way).
  http://www.csusa.org/face/index.htm

 

• Copyright & Fair Use
  This site gives general, up-to-date information on copyright law.
  http://fairuse.stanford.edu
  
  http://www.vistaprint.com/marketing-article-detail.aspx?pid=866
   
• The Copyright Crash Course
  A step-by-step, easy-to-understand guide to copyright law. Includes information on fair use (offers a service called “Ask a Lawyer,” which allows you to write a lawyer trained in copyright law with your questions) and copyright holders (called “Who Owns What?” and based mostly on UT policies).
  http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/Intellectual Property/copypol2.htm

 

¨        Specific Copyright Information

• The Permissions Group
  A comprehensive list of copyright resources (some of which are listed below). One site on the list, Project Gutenberg, allows you to search by title or name to find out if a work is in the public domain.
  http://www.permissionsgroup.com/ritsres.html

 

• Web/Internet copyright information
  The Copyright Web site: http://www.benedict.com

 

• Music licensing information
  American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP): http://www.ascap.com
  Kohn on Music Licensing: http://www.kohnmusic.com

 

 

[sample permission request letter]

 

<date>

 

Permissions Manager

ABC Publishing Company

7894 Burdock Road

Springfield, GA  49275

 

 

 

Dear Permissions Manager:

 

I am writing to request permission to reprint

 

pp. 234-5 in Chapter 9 of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Saints by Eve Adamski, 1987

 

in my upcoming book Saints, Saints, and More Saints due to be published by Loyola Press in March 2002.

 

Edition: Trade book

Binding: Paperback

Approximate number of pages: 200–­­250

Initial print run: 7,500

Proposed price: $12.95

Market: U.S. and Canada

Language: English