Are there any restrictions on someone taking excerpts from a written
interview with a TV personality which has already been published in a
newspaper or magazine?

The excerpts taken are intended to be used as part of a larger package
which will be sold over the internet.

In providing your answer please provide links which clearly explain
the answer with respect to copyright law.

Secondly, if there are restrictions are there ways to get round the
situation? Again please provide web links with detailed answers.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Sep 2005 06:52 PDT

The short answer is "Yes.  The interview is copyright-protected, and
there are plenty of restrictions on how it can be used, especially for
a commercial product."

You can use small bits and pieces of copyright material under the
concept known as "fair use".  Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut
guidelines as to how-much-is-OK vs how-much-is-too-much.  It stinks,
but that's the way it is.

Some copyright FAQs can be found here:


http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/


including one on:  Can I Use Someone Else's Work? Can Someone Else Use Mine? 

In particular, look at the 'fair use' FAQ:


-----
How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission?

Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is
permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for
purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly
reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific
number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a
work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all
the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21,
Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.
-----


The best way around restrictions is to get permission to use the
material in advance, although this is not always a very practical
solution.

Let me know what more you need to make for a complete answer to your question.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by blakes7-ga on 20 Sep 2005 14:24 PDT

Are there any other ways I can use the material without directly and
explicitly seeking permission?

You see, if I asked for permission I may be rejected, so how else
could I make use of some of the material?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 20 Sep 2005 14:36 PDT

You can do what millions of folks do every day -- make use of brief
excerpts, with the expectation that no one would bother to make a
copyright infringement claim for a minor amount of material.

For instance, I will use here an excerpt from something you wrote: 
"Copyright regarding interviews in newspapers and magazines"
[source:blakes7-ga]

Now...would you go to the trouble of formally protesting my use of
your text over such a trivial passage?  Probably not.  Neither would
most magazines, etc if they were to come across small excertps from
their own publication.

However...the only real guarantee you can have is to get permission in advance.  


Does that help?


pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by blakes7-ga on 21 Sep 2005 01:32 PDT

The package will consist of mainly material relating to a particular
subject (psychic / paranormal events). One of the smaller sections in
this package will be specifically about a famous individual who is
knowledgeable on this subject. There are articles in newspapers and
magazines which have interviewed this person, and I'm wondering if I
could use any of this material.

I am giving a specific example in order to help, but my question is
about doing such practices in general.

What's going into your "larger package"?  Will it be primarily
excerpts from printed articles relating to "a TV personality", or
perhaps different packages relating to various personalities or
celebrities?

The package will consist of mainly material relating to a particular
subject (psychic / paranormal events). One of the smaller sections in
this package will be specifically about a famous individual who is
knowledgeable on this subject. There are articles in newspapers and
magazines which have interviewed this person, and I'm wondering if I
could use any of this material.

I am giving a specific example in order to help, but my question is
about doing such practices in general.

While I'm by no means an expert, this is the input from a former
journalist and writer who has dabbled (and I do mean dabbled, nothing
serious)in copyright law, and specifically fair use issues: Fair use
is terribly undefined, but if you're only using a small segment of an
article or two and cite your sources you ought to be ok - of course,
you also have make sure you're not misusing the content which is an
issue in and of itself. And it should be noted that if you're
concerned the person won't give you permission to use the quote(s),
then you might be in shaky water. Your very best option is to just get
an interview yourself with the person - then you're not stepping on
anyone's toes. You also will want to be careful about the author of
the articles and the original publication - it's probably better (odd
as this might sound) to get the author's permission and check the
guidelines of the publication than to get the interviewee's
permission. After all, the words are already published and at that
point are public domain. What is not public domain is the article the
quote(s) appear in. Fair use law (to my understanding) is going to
apply to the article, not the person. And if the person is considered
an expert then s/he might fall under the public figure scenario in
which case you have more leeway.

Overall, it's the original publication and author you should worry
about (unless you get an interview yourself). Without more
information, that's the best I can give you.

oh, if you're goind an anthology (or the like), you'll need the
permission of at least the author (but probably the publication, since
it's not the author who will own the copyright) to publish.