I am trying to find out exactly what the law is on using another
person's work in my book.  If I write a book summarizing all of the
main points in someone else's book, is this legal?  Do I need
permission from the author?

Hello apir~

You're wanting to know is if it's what's called "fair use" to mention
the points from another book in your own volume. As the U.S. Copyright
Office states, "The distinction between 'fair use' and infringement
may be unclear and not easily defined." ("Fair Use," U.S. Copyright
Office, http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html )

You may only use a small amount of actual text from someone else's
work. In other words, your quotes must be limited. Just how limited is
a legal question that's difficult to answer. The above article from
the Copyright Office states:

"The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision
of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts
have regarded as fair use: 'quotation of excerpts in a review or
criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short
passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or
clarification of the author?s observations; use in a parody of some of
the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article,
with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of
a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by
a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson;
reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or
reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or
broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being
reported.'" If you want to quote a goodly amount, the safest thing is
to obtain written permission from the copyright holder.

On the other hand, ideas are not copyrightable. (See "Ideas, Methods,
or Systems," U.S. Copyright Office,
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ31.html ) Therefore, if you want to
state ideas in an entirely different way from the original book, you
may. However, morally you're obligated give credit where credit is
due, and mention that the ideas came from such and such a book and
author.

In addition, if you want your *entire* book to revolve around someone
eles' ideas, you will have to be especially careful to "make them your
own." You should be adding your own ideas, and you must be writing in
your own words. A publisher will be wary of a manucript that walks the
fine line between fair use and infringement.

Regards,
Kriswrite

RESEARCH STRATEGY
Search of U.S. Copyright Office's publication files

---

Request for Answer Clarification by apir-ga on 18 Aug 2004 06:29 PDT

So selling three to five page "executive summaries" of books
(non-fiction) is not allowed without the author's permission?

---

Clarification of Answer by kriswrite-ga on 18 Aug 2004 06:51 PDT

Apir~

It depends. If there is a lot of quoting, or barely rephrasing going
on, yes, you must obtain the copyright holder's permission. If you
follow the basic "fair use" guidelines, use all your own words, and
give credit where credit is due, you will probably be fine. (The
copyright holder could try to sue, but it's unlikely they would win a
case.)

Kriswrite

Thank you.