in Editing
Quoting other people's work: permissions and fair dealing in the UK
UK law allows some quotation without permission, but less than many writers assume. A cautious guide to fair dealing and when to ask.
Writers quote constantly: a line from a novel, a passage from a history, a verse of a song. Most of the time nobody thinks about copyright. When a book goes to print, somebody has to.
This article describes the general position in the UK. It is not legal advice. Copyright questions turn on specific facts, and a real case with real risk needs advice from someone qualified to give it.
What is protected
In the UK, copyright in a literary work generally lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years from the end of the year in which they died. Within that period, reproducing a substantial part of the work requires permission unless an exception applies.
Two points often surprise writers. First, substantial is judged by quality as well as quantity. A short extract can be substantial if it is the heart of the work. Second, older works can carry newer copyrights. A translation, an edited text or a new introduction may be protected even when the original is long out of copyright.
Fair dealing
UK law does not have the broad American doctrine of fair use. It has fair dealing, a set of narrower exceptions for particular purposes. The ones most relevant to authors are criticism or review, quotation, and the reporting of current events, all found in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
For criticism and review, you may quote a work in order to criticise or review it, or another work, provided the work has been made available to the public, the use is fair, and there is sufficient acknowledgement. The quotation exception is broader in purpose but carries similar conditions, including that the extent of the quotation is no more than is required for the specific purpose.
Whether a use is fair is a question of degree. Courts have considered factors such as how much is taken, whether the use competes with the original, and whether the quotation serves the stated purpose or is really just decoration. There is no safe word count, despite rumours to the contrary.
Where writers get caught
Quotation for criticism works best when you are actually discussing the passage. Quoting a poem in full to open a chapter, then never mentioning it, is hard to describe as criticism.
Song lyrics and poetry are the classic difficulties. The works are short, so even a few lines can be a substantial part, and rights holders in music have a reputation for charging for permissions. Epigraphs raise related questions.
Images, maps and photographs are separate works with their own copyrights, often held by different people from the text around them.
Asking for permission
When in doubt, ask. Permission usually comes from the publisher of the quoted work, sometimes from the author's estate or an agent. Explain what you want to quote, where it will appear, the format and territory of your book, and roughly how many copies. Keep every reply in writing.
Start early. Permissions can take weeks or months, and a refusal late in production may force a rewrite.
If you cannot trace a rights holder, record every attempt you made. The UK has a licensing scheme for orphan works, but it has conditions and costs, and it is not a general shield.
Whether you rely on permission or on fair dealing, credit the source clearly. For fair dealing, sufficient acknowledgement is part of the legal test. For permissions, the rights holder will usually specify the wording.
Quoting well is part of good writing. Doing it lawfully is mostly a matter of starting the checks before the book is finished rather than after.