24. Quotes and Time Frames
for Publicly Available Content
ML: Is there a rule of thumb for
quoting previously published, publicly available, reports and news stories.
Specifically, how much can you directly quote a publication before it
becomes necessary to ask the authors permission? How does this differ
for purchased materials (such as a research report from a think tank)?
For
newspaper articles that were once publicly available online and in print,
but are now only available online to publication subscribers (for instance
the New York Times Select or the Wall Street Journal, which restricts
non-subscribers from accessing certain articles after a set period of
time) are direct quotes allowed once the time has passed that they are
publicly available online? Thanks!
Pat
& Maura: No,
there are no reliable “rules of thumb” (in terms of time,
or percentages, or whatever). The Statement
of Best Practices in Fair Use however, is a reliable source of guidance.
Quoting from news sources is permissible under the same general principles
as filmmakers use—if the use is appropriate to the transformed use.
There is no difference between news and reports. You can quote online
materials just as you can quote others.
25. Quotation Limit
Kathleen L.: So I find something
I think is relevant and needs to be brought to the attention of my fellow
gatherer’s but it happens to be some one else’s creation, how much can
I quote, with acknowledgements before it becomes a violation of their
copyright? Most of the time some of us post links to the website, if there
is one. What if there’s no website to direct them to for the ‘rest’ of
the information… how much of a book or magazine article can we quote
without stepping on some body’s toes?
Pat
& Maura: According
to the Statement
of Best Practices in Fair Use, documentary filmmakers stipulated that
you can only quote from someone else’s material for as long or as
much as it takes to make your point. That doesn’t include, incidentally,
using others’ material just to save yourself the trouble of making
the point in your own words/own images. Please see the Statement
of Best Practices in Fair Use for more clarity.
http://us.oneworld.net/section/us/asktheexperts/fairuse#text