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Questions tagged [copyright]

Questions involving matters of copyright, encapsulating parody and level of similarity questions, reprinting and publishing of copyrighted works, public domain, attribution, fanfiction, legality, and fair use questions. Any question involving copyright law in the U.S. or abroad should be given this tag.

Questions involving matters of copyright, encapsulating parody and level of similarity questions, reprinting and publishing of copyrighted works, public domain, attribution, fanfiction, legality, and fair use questions. Any question involving copyright law in the U.S. or abroad should be given this tag. Other topics that could involve copyright include whether or not something qualifies as fair use, whether or not permissions should be or have been granted to use a work, and whether something is properly sourced or given due legal credit.

Copyright references and materials:

United States (U.S.) Copyright Law: https://www.copyright.gov/title17/

European Union (EU) Copyright Legislation: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/eu-copyright-legislation

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May I use real weapon names in my book without copyright problems?

I would like to use some weapon names to sound familiar to readers, (AK47, M16, C4, Colt...), but as far as I have heard, using real names from weapons one must have the permission of the companies (at least, it happens with videogames). So, my…
LordWater
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Using Names for Weaponry used in Actual Games

I've recently looked at the chat that talks about the question of referencing actual military weapons in your writing. Since I'm writing a science-fiction novel, that's not too big of a problem for me; however, this causes me to raise a question:…
Agent RAF
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In a parody of a short children's story, is copying a couple of lines word-for-word going to present legal problems?

I've written a parody of a famous children's book, the original being a 60-line poem with illustrations (modern, so definitely within copyright). I've tried to get the parody as close to the poem as possible in terms of meter and rhyming scheme,…
Chordus
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Vanity publishers - authors who have paid for a service- what are our rights?

Once upon a time I published a book via what you could call a vanity publisher. I paid money for the full process including book design etc. The ISBN is in their name. I was delighted by the high standard of the finished product, but not at all…
SA M
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Is it possible to copyright my great grandfather's unpublished book of handwritten poetry written in the late nineteenth century?

In the latter half of the 19th century, my great grandfather wrote a series of handwritten poems that he compiled in handbound poetry book, along with two of his penciled drawings. The book was never submitted for publication. Can I copyright this…
jim
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How can I establish ownership over my work?

I have an irrational fear of my work being stolen. I understand that this is, realistically, extremely unlikely to happen. There are just too many barriers to something being successfully stolen and sold, and I should be able to put my name and…
Unfortunately Phobic
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General copyright - How much is actually copyrighted?

I find myself seeking a lot of ideas for my alternate universes, novels, short stories, and so forth. Exactly what can be considered copyrighted, and what isn't? Let me give you some examples. Star Trek: I know the name "Star Trek" is copyrighted. I…
Ninjakreborn
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How does copyright apply to the Q&A sections of educational or textbooks?

I'd like to document my learning experience, and I'd like to use the 'quizzes' or 'chapter review' style questions in my textbooks as the basis for blog posts. So basically, I finish a chapter and do the review questions on my blog...Here's the…
Student
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Copyright: is it OK to include very short (paragraph-length) text from other novels?

Writing a novel, is it legal in terms of copyright to have a character reading aloud a passage from an existing book? Something like this: John opened Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire and looked Maria intently. With a smirk, he began…
user33295
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Is permission required for quoting the Bible or nursery rhymes?

I have characters in my novels that quote the Bible and a couple lines of old nursery rhymes. Do I need to obtain permission in order to use these quotes in my books? What about quoting a popular line from a Shakespeare book? (Self-publishing from…
Wakanda
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How to copyright my works in India?

I'm a poet and I write small poems. I know there is a lot to learn and update in the works I make, but how can I copyright my works? Is it one time for all the works or does every work need to be done individually? I live in India.
Sarath
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Does the first sale doctrine invalidate non commercial licences?

I found this great question on wikipedia that I thought deserved an answer: If I understand this correctly, this could be used to circumvent the non-commercial clause in certain Creative Common licenses. If person A makes copies and gives them to…
hildred
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Does copyright law let me publish my detailed notes of someone else's speech?

I attended a speech that was open to the general public and took my own very detailed notes of everything that the speaker said. I would like to publish my notes as a report of the speech. Does copyright law let me do this without requesting…
Tripartio
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How to release one's work into the public domain?

How can I show that my self-published work is in the public domain? Simply by stating something like "Released into the public domain"? Or using the public domain symbol 🅮?
Geremia
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Copyright issues when using images from a TV show in my book

I'm writing an episode guide for a TV show and I think it would be helpful to include a couple of screenshots/images from each episode plus maybe 4 or 5 more images throughout the book. What is the legal position in doing this? I'm in the UK but…
The Betpet
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