Have you ever read a book that has those neat little poems or quotes at the beginning of each chapter?
Ever consider including a few lines of "I shot the Sheriff" in your next best-seller?
One author did. And those two lines from that pop song cost him £1,000 or roughly $1434. And he found out after his book was already out in the market.
Have any of you used a quote or lines from other songs, books, poems, etc?
Simply citing the source is not always enough. I read this a while ago and recently heard about another author running into "issues" with his book.
Plagiarism - make sure you give credit where credit is due.
Copyright - make sure you get PERMISSION from the copyright owner. (That isn't always the author...as we all know).
The is a big difference between what is considered FAIR USE and what is considered COPYRIGHT.
Here's a great article on what authors should know about Fair Use:
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/02/what-every-writer-ought-to-know-about-fair-use-and-copyright/
Here's the article in the Guardian about the author who learned this the hard way:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/01/blake-morrison-lyrics-copyright
I'm not giving anyone any advice (legal or otherwise). I'm just putting this out there in an attempt to warn my fellow authors about possible problems they may face.
I hope this helped someone...or at least gave you all something to think about.
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