Can I use famous quotes by people like Voltaire or Mark twain legally?
Posted by admin on Sep 15, 2008 in Quotations |
zod asked:
Can I use famous quotes by people like Voltaire or Mark twain legally for use on calanders or other printed medium and make a profit or are there ways to do it and how would I go about doing it?
Health and Fitness
Can I use famous quotes by people like Voltaire or Mark twain legally for use on calanders or other printed medium and make a profit or are there ways to do it and how would I go about doing it?
Health and Fitness
if their not copyrighted i cant see why not.
I am not sure but i know you can use a quotation as long as it has quotation marks and the authors name follows it.
yes…use them but give them credit….no problem there are no copyrights involved in those you mentioned because they are too old and in the public domain. if you have doubts about other famous people keep it simple and use ones that are old.
Public Domain
Yes
Yes, You can. Just to let you know, the word Twain is the name for the space under a brige
Yes as long as you don’t try to say that you made the quote or anything you should be fine and make sure if you do use it to put that it was written or said by that specific person that said it!
Think when someone has died so long ago you can quote them but not steal them…in other words you have to name your source when quoting them. In more recent cases, a family might own their name and you would need their permission….older ones would be public domain. Am not a professional writer, but that is my understanding….and public domain can be resourced at libraries, etc.
You can quote anything that has not been copyrighted. A copyright is no longer valid 20 years after the author’s death. However, a trademark is different, there is no expiration on them unless the trademark becomes part of the common language. Be very careful because people and companies are more than willing to sue to make sure that there trademark does not become part of the common language.
I think you can as long as you print the source but I would play it safe and contact a copyright office. Before you get sued.
mabye who knows
Some of these answers are wrong — and that could be dangerous to you. See a lawyer. (And by the way, the laws vary somewhat from country to country.)
As to US law, Wikipedia says:
the copyright term [is] the life of the author plus 70 years for works created after January 1, 1978. In the case of a work of corporate authorship … the term will be 95 years from the date of first publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first. … The duration of U.S. copyright for works created before 1978 is a complex matter; however, works published before 1923 are all in the public domain.
So you should be safe with Twain (who died in 1910) and Voltaire (who died earlier), unless you’re quoting something that was first published after they died. As to quoting other people, check your dates.
By the way, I’m a lawyer.