When I first started creative writing online in forums I got a lot of my inspiration from lyrics. Specifically, from two Marillion albums; Clutching at Straws and Misplaced Childhood.

Fish’s lyrics (the lead singer at the time) gave rise to my first handful of characters and a setting for my first creative writing site.

Since then I’ve often used quotes from songs to set the tone for whatever scene we were doing. When I started delving into writing novels I did the same thing. I’m sure you’ve seen many fiction novels and other books that used quotes at the beginning of each chapter.

Great idea, right? Many pop songs often set just the right atmosphere for a scene. Why not use them? Or anyone’s quotes? There’s plenty of them out there; other authors, movies, plays and so on.

We almost considered doing exactly that for our novel.

As long as you give credit to the person who originally penned the words everything is cool, yes?

Um….no.

Yeah! Shocked me too when I read about it on Joel Friedlander’s site The Book Designer. It wasn’t so much that certain aspects of Fair Use applied, but rather the price tag that came along with it when you do try to do things right.

What price tag am I talking about? The one Blake Morrison found after his editor decided to be safe and request for permission to use a few lines from popular lyrics in his at the time soon to be released novel.

Intellectual Sticker Shock

This is making me think I’m in the wrong business. All the money’s in being quoted. Maybe I should become a professional quote maker.

Seriously though, it may suck for you as a writer, but remember, Fair Use works both ways. Not only is it protecting everyone else out there, but you too.

If you’re a designer, illustrator, writer, film maker, musician or anyone else in a creative field, you’d do well to know and understand how Fair Use works.

Joel does a very good job of explaining it, so definitely go read his post. In short, Fair Use is using a quote or image, or a piece of any other copyrighted work in a review, for educational purposes, comments or in a parody. Basically, if you’re not going to make a profit from the use of the material used, you can use it.

Not only does this apply to the written word, it also applies to the graphics you buy on iStock or other royalty free sites.

But It Says Royalty Free…?

Yes, it does. And it is. To an extent. There are limitations. “Royalty Free” does not give you license to do whatever you like with the images. It simply allows you to use the images for informational purposes; like illustrating a point on your blog, or in a free ebook, or on your website design.

The keyword here is “Free”. When it’s for personal use, like on a website design for yourself, or informational as in illustrating your blog posts, you’re not making a profit off of that.

Now, if you were to find a sweet vector image (flat, 2D image that usually comes in an .eps file) for a logo, you can’t use it for your logo or a client’s logo unless you or the client spends the extra money to buy the license to do that.

Why? Because eventually you or your client is going to want that image copyrighted. Technically, that image still belongs to the artist who created it. Each time an image from a royalty free site is purchased, the artist is being compensated for that download. So while YOU aren’t paying the royalties on the use of that image, iStock and others are.

Unintentional Endorsements

Be careful when using live people for your products, too. Whether it’s an unknown model or celebrity, their image belongs to them. How would you feel if someone used your image to endorse a product you never heard of? Or worse yet, a shoddy product that could totally ruin your reputation?

Take for example this image of Alicia Silverstone on a garment bag. I doubt very much she gave her permission on that one. If she did, that company would be paying her a piece of each bag sold. The same goes for the models you see on iStock. Think of it this way; face you put on your product or in your ad already belongs to someone else.

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

Always give credit to other people’s work, and when in doubt, ask permission from the source. Don’t just assume because it could end up costing you. When it comes to the law, ignorance is no excuse.

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