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message 1:
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Lenita
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Mar 30, 2016 04:31PM
Do I need to give credit to a quote from YouTube if it was only a sentence and not word for word?
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You're not "quoting" something if what you repeat is not word for word. It sounds like you're paraphrasing so that the sentence is similar to, or even close to, the original, but not precisely so.I'm not a copyright lawyer, but it seems to me that absent an actual use of someone else's choice of words in a particular sequence, there's no copyright issue and no "credit" issue.
Just my USD .02.
Eric
It depends.In most cases, you should be okay. You are not copying word for word. A stray sentence on youtube doesn't sound like something that ought to come within copyright.
But it's not straight-forward. Taylor Swift is being sued by someone who claims to have invented the phrase "haters gonna hate". Tay herself has tried to copyright the phrase "this sick beat" and "1989". Yup, she is trying to lay claim to the entire year.
Lawyers for the Tolkien estate have come down hard on people using phrases like "hobbit". Games Workshop tried to claim the phrase "space marine".
In other words, there are no hard and fast rules. If the sentence you are trying to copy contains song lyrics or a copyrighted name, and if it ever comes to court, you might find that the original owner wants to protect his/her intellectual property. On the other hand, you might be perfectly safe if the sentence on youtube was said by someone who isn't particularly famous and doesn't contain anything memorable or copyrightable.
All in all, I can't say "yeah, you'll be fine" or "nope, I wouldn't do that." It depends on what you are trying to copy.
If in doubt with something like this, I usually rewrite it so it bears no relation to anything else. It's good writing practice too.
Lots of luck trying to copyright a common phrase, let alone the year 1989. Ha! When I copyrighted the name of my business, I had to confirm with the US Patent Office that I was not claiming a copyright to the word “Press” but only to the complete name “Rapidsoft Press.” Registration of this copyright was published by USPTO on 8 September 2015.And BTW, published quotations (of things people say or said) are facts and cannot be copyrighted (per Larry G. Townsend, intellectual property rights attorney in San Francisco).
Also, see the rules on “fair use,” which define how much of a copyrighted work you can use in your own work without the author’s permission. It’s a rather arcane subject.
Thank all of you for all your help! :) I have decided to go back and make sure all I have in the book is in my own words.
As a first step, you may want to learn the difference between copyrights and trademarks.
You can register a copyright in either published material or a trademark. The name of my business is a registered trademark, as is Microsoft Windows®. A trademark that is not registered with the USPTO is marked with the symbol TM (as a superscript). A registered trademark cannot be copied by someone else, hence it is copyrighted.
It's more complicated than simply trademarks or copyright. In the UK (and a few other countries) we have a common law called "passing off". This provides a level of protection for intellectual property or designs which have not been registered as a trademark or a copyright. If you have a design or phrase which is closely associated with your business you can take legal action against someone who uses that design or phrase to pretend to be you. In other words, someone is "passing themselves off" as you.It's a legal minefield. So, Lenita, I am sure you are right to rewrite it in your own words. Safer that way.
Will is quite right. The copyright laws in the UK and Europe are not the same as here in the USA. For one thing, the “fair use” rules are a lot more strict on the other side of the ocean. And Will also brings up the subject of anything you create being copyrighted by law, even without the © sign being affixed thereto. You get more protection by registering the copyright, but you can still defend against plagiarism even without having registered the copyright with the appropriate government agency. And he is right about it being a legal minefield. That’s why my co-author and I had to consult an intellectual rights attorney to be sure we were treading on safe ground with Right to Die. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
G. wrote: "You can register a copyright in either published material or a trademark...."To be perfectly clear, a copyright is not the same as a trademark, and vice versa. You don't copyright a trademark. The two aren't even handled by the same government branch: Trademarks are handled online via USPTO.gov. Copyrights are handled via copyright.gov. They are in no way synonymous.
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getti...
I never meant to imply that they were synonymous. But don’t try copying my registered trademark, or your you-know-what is grass. It’s just semantics. USPTO registers trademarks, copyright.gov registers the copyright in creative works. Both forbid copying by anyone. First to Die is registered with the Copyright Office along with the required two best “edition” copies; the name Rapidsoft Press is registered with the USPTO. Neither can be copied legally by anyone else. If that isn’t reserving a “right to copy” than I don’t know what is.
It's all in my own words, but I'd still like to thank the source under Acknowledgements.
