Is it legal to sell t-shirts with quotes from famous people? How do I know if the quotes are in public domain?
Posted by admin on Nov 20, 2008 in Law Ethics |
HawaiianBrian asked:
What if the quote is from a book they wrote that’s been copyrighted? If it’s not allowed, how do books of quotations get around that problem? Thanks!
Bracelets
What if the quote is from a book they wrote that’s been copyrighted? If it’s not allowed, how do books of quotations get around that problem? Thanks!
Bracelets
Quotes are in public domain if they where spoken and not written by the speaker. Or if they are from book are that is now in the publicdomain (books written before 1900 are all in public domain; Peter Pan is not by an special law). Many books after 1900 are in the public domain but you need to check one by one, there are some list online.
If the book has a copyright you need permision unlees you can prove fair use. But selling t-shirt doesn’t fall into the fair-use doctrine and you can be sued.
Books of quotations pay royalties to the author or publisher if the quote is not in the public domain. Or they ask for legal consent from the owner of the copyrighted material.
Read below fron the US Copyright Office
How much of someone else’s work can I use without getting permission?
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.