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An acquaintance of mine - let's call him Robert - is having a book published based on his academic research. The book targets the general public, and the publication is commercial, albeit with a scholarly nature. In theory, my acquaintance could even see some money out of this affair.

Robert begins each chapter with an epigram - a short quote from somewhere. It could be an official document of some world state, it could be some adage by a famous literary figure, etc.

Now, the (US) publisher is requiring Robert to obtain explicit rights for the text of each of these epigraphs - just like other reproduced material such as photos, tables of data etc. I am pretty sure this is a bogus requirement, but I'm not sure how to advice Robert to argue against this and claim he should not need to do this.

In case it matters at all - these epigraphs appeared in Robert's relevant articles, monographs, reports and/or theses on which the book is based.

Can you help me offer such an argument?

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    Isn't this a legal question?
    – GoodDeeds
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 21:29
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    @GoodDeeds: Well, yes, but one which academics occasionally face, and may have relevant experience with. Also, I don't want a court brief about this...
    – einpoklum
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 21:40
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    Why do you think it's a bogus requirement? It seems quite reasonable to me.
    – Massimo Ortolano
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 21:43
  • I guess the easiest would be taking epigrams that are old enough to fall outside of copyright. Not sure how long an explicit quotation you are allowed to quote verbatim under "fair use", if you do not take expired quotations. I could imagine that if using commercial mottos, you might not infringe copyrights, but instead trademarks. Caveat emptor.
    – Captain Emacs
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 21:52
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    I agree: legal question. In the US, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use Elsewhere see their lawyers.
    – GEdgar
    Commented Aug 4, 2021 at 21:53

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Likely the issue for the publisher is that the "epigram" can, perhaps, be considered to be a "complete work". As such, you can't copy/quote it if it is copyrighted even with a citation. This is similar to images and some graphics, which are complete in themselves, so "fair use" doesn't apply.

It isn't just the length of the quote that matters but how much of the "work" it contains. There are other factors as well, but they may not apply.

Just as a two line poem can't be copied without permission (if under copyright), even if properly quoted and cited, you can't copy other "complete works".

One additional solution is to use older epigrams that are no longer under copyright.

Some publishers will provide a fund for license payments for such things, either a grant or a charge against future royalties. They do the same, sometimes, for cover images and some other things.

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  • Can't copyright on old works be renewed somehow? Or is anything older than -N years from now, safe? Also, how can one decide whether, say, a two-line poem is a work, or a piece of a book of poems?
    – einpoklum
    Commented Aug 5, 2021 at 10:39
  • @einpoklum I forget the exact date (about the time Mickey Mouse first appeared) but sometime around 1927 the copyright law seems to be updated frequently enough that copyright may now be perpetual in US. Prior to that they expired some years after the creator's death. So, stuff prior to that date is mostly free of copyright. And a "piece of a book" doesn't imply that it is not a complete work on its own. In fact for poems it is likely that the "collecting in a book" is just coincidental. The individual poems are "creative works" individually. The "collection" may also be "creative", or not.
    – Buffy
    Commented Aug 5, 2021 at 10:48

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