book reviews and summaries - do i need permission?

[djsted]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? florida

I want to consolidate information contained in books, websites and other media and sell the summaries. (think Cliffs Notes) If my summaries contain ideas from those books, etc. then do I need permission from them?

If I credit the author with the idea in my writings - do I need permission then?

If the idea is not original to the author and can be found in numerous books then do I have to credit any author?

ie. "Money saving tips in the kitchen" - I read in several books and on several websites that "buy in-season fruit can save you money". If I include that statement in my writings do I have to credit any of the authors?

Also.

If I want to note the books and websites I'm visiting in my writings do I need permission from the writers/owners?
ie. "I've read X,Y and Z books and summarized them in my book". (think Cliffs Notes) Do I need permission? Do I have to give credit?

thanks so much.

 

[quincy]

I am afraid there are no simple answers to your questions.

From the Copyright Act: "Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

Fair use grants the right to use copyrighted material for certain defined reasons and under certain defined circumstances. Fair use is also a defense to a copyright infringement suit. But, because fair use is ultimately determined at a court level after an infringement action has been filed, it is a gray area of the law. A court may determine your use is fair - and then again, it may not.

Although SparkNotes and Cliffs Notes and Einstein's Notes use copyrighted material in their publications, as summaries of copyrighted texts and using direct quotes from the texts, the uses have generally been found to be fair. A suit brought by Faulkner Press LLC against Class Notes LLC (which does business as Einstein's Notes), however, has questioned whether the uses of copyrighted material in publications made for profit are fair uses of the material.

Your best bet, always, is to obtain permission from copyright holders before using their material in any form, and to have an IP attorney review your publication(s) prior to print. This avoids the question of whether your use is a fair one or not, and this avoids the risk of any lawsuit over your use.

Crediting the authors of a work, alone, will not prevent a lawsuit if you have not obtained prior consent to use their copyrighted material.

Good luck.


(the Florida case you may wish to review is Faulkner Press LLC v Class Notes LLC, d/b/a Einstein's Notes, 2008, which, although centered on a professor's registered copyrighted lectures, addresses the issues of copyrighted material in publications such as Sparks and Cliffs - a similar 1996 Florida suit against A-Plus Notes, by the way, was dismissed by the courts)