What about citing others’ writing?
This issue just came up in my writing life, so it is at the top of my mind. I think most people, not only those who consider themselves “writers,” will find this post useful information.
Linking on the Internet
First, it’s fine with me if folks want to send a link to any of my blog posts to their friends or put a link to them on another platform. This is common practice these days.
Short quotations are okay, too, and fall under the “fair use” category, but the author’s name still needs to be cited. There are some more rules about how much can be quoted based on the length of the original piece.
For more info, click here.
HOWEVER …
To copy and republish in your own book (or anywhere else) another person’s blog post in its entirety, or an email they sent you, or any other form of someone else’s writing, even while citing the author’s name and putting quotation marks around the quoted material, FIRST you need to get that author’s written permission. Besides being copyright law, it’s just plain COMMON COURTESY. Remember courtesy? It’s something I learned at home, how about you?
Automatic copyright
In case you don’t know, as soon as anyone writes anything, it is automatically copyrighted. The person who wrote the blog, the email, the story, the book, etc. owns that piece of writing.
And this may come as a surprise, but even a letter that someone wrote and sent to you belongs to them! You don’t own the copyright to the letter they sent to you. You can’t publish it in a book you are writing without asking the sender’s permission. I had to get such permissions for my book. The sender of the letter, etc. owns that content, not you. That is copyright law.
Writers face a challenge sometimes when they want to include a letter in their story to make a more powerful point. BUT if the author of the letter declines permission, the only work-around is to paraphrase the letter’s content. And it might be a good idea not to name the author of that letter. Notice I said “may.” But you should not copy and paste without permission.
Copyright law instruction
For more on copyright issues, here’s one book I really like:
Click here: The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook by Lloyd J. Jassin and Steven C. Schechter.
See you next time!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
Marjorie Patton
Thank you for some interesting information that I don‘t think most of us non-writers even were aware of, If I understand correctly, then even a letter that i send to my grandson, who is a commercial artist, commenting on his latest work technically belongs to me, and he cannot use my comments in any promotion that he chooses without my permission? Since he & I have a great relationship, he will be amused when I tell him that.
Buck Dopp
Great stuff, Charlene! I found this post insightful, clear and helpful. Thanks for sharing.