Monday, June 13, 2011

WES BRYAN TAKES A QUESTION : COPYRIGHT ? NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION

Adam : "I'm an aspiring song writer. I was wondering where I might find information on using famous quotes in song lyrics."

Wes : We're linking to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION here which has some good information and links about music copyright. You may want to contact them and see if they can guide you to the correct answer.

I think the question may be who owns the copyright to a quote and if they are policing the use of their words. Fair Use of a quote for this blog includes attributing it to the person who said (or wrote) those words. There are many ways to express the same thought though, and we notice that some quotes are repeated (and published in books and on the net) with slight changes, attributed to different people. This question also falls into the same category of "song sampling" by rap artists and Fair Use of music on the net.


Our favorite, RCS Discography, carefully follows the 4 bar sampling policy. While, as we all know, YouTube established new ground in the (temporary) use of listening tomusic, including songs I wrote and recorded. So how much use anyone can get out of anything that someone else originated gets to be a complicated question at times.

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