You Can’t Quote That by Andy Scheer

Page 174 stopped me cold. Unless the novelist wanted legal trouble, something had to change.

In editing the novel, I’d already checked the copyright and permissions page. I saw the usual boilerplate acknowledging use by permission from several Scripture versions. But nothing about song lyrics.

Ideally, the author would have two choices. But this project was on a tight deadline. So page 174 had to change.

A character had just turned on her car radio, and it scanned to an oldies station. Suddenly she was back with her boyfriend in 1965 at their senior prom, hearing their favorite song.

A natural segue for a brief flashback. With one problem: the author quoted the song’s entire chorus.

Enter the copyright police. While lawyers struggle to define exactly how much of a copyrighted work an author can freely cite, printing the full chorus of a recent song (and 1964 is still considered recent) is clearly too much. Opinions vary about whether quoting even a line is kosher. But mentioning the title is safe.

I confirmed the author had neither the time nor the inclination to track down the song’s copyright holder. So now, readers will be told that Grace smiled when the radio played “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups. The next paragraph will say they had expected that soon, they would go to a chapel and get married. And a paragraph later, the sweetheart will paraphrase a line of lyrics about loving until the end of time.

In the story, the former sweetheart had done four years in prison. I wouldn’t want the author to share a similar fate.

Don't Panic Over Pinterest Copyright Issues by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

If you've signed up to use Pinterest and you've seen people posting things saying that it violates copyright laws to repin and post images and/or videos, don't panic and delete your account. Instead, realize that Pinterest still has its benefits, but you may have to alter the way you use Pinterest. You may need to delete some boards or only a few images from your boards. If you haven't started a Pinterest account, but have been toying with the idea, below are a few suggestions.

What Is Pinterest?
In the site's own description, it's a virtual pinboard, allowing people to pin images and videos of things they love and organize them in categories to share inspiration and get creative ideas from planning weddings, taking vacations, to cooking and organizing one's house to save space. It's limitless. I've created boards for my new book releases, other boards for books and movies I recommend, historic places I've enjoyed visiting and things of interest such as lighthouses.

Agreement of Use
According to Pinterest's agreement of use policy, YOU are responsible and must have legal and sole right to post, pin, repin all member content that you choose to interact with. If you want to read an article that goes into more detail, here's one I originally saw posted on Robin Lee Hatcher's Facebook page, entitled Why I Tearfully Deleted my Pinterest Inspiration Boards. Also, here is a link to Pinterest's Copyright page and they also have a page on Etiquette.

Self-Promoting
Their etiquette page says to avoid self-promotion. I don't have a problem posting a board with my book releases. If it was the only board I had posted, then I would be solely promoting myself, but I'm promoting other things I like on other boards I've created and that is what Pinterest is about.

If we are limited to only posting our own images, then we're also limiting ourselves to only sharing our personal blog posts and experiences. Isn't this another form of self-promotion? Yes, it's indirect self-promotion. For instance, I've created a story board for Highland Sanctuary. I posted images from my personal blog and wikipedia where I knew them to be from the public domain. This board isn't about me, but about my story and the research that went into creating it. Likewise, not all of my blog posts are about me and my writing. I write inspirational devotions, promote other historical Christian fiction, and write about my historical research and historical places I visit. These are things of interest to me. My Pinterest boards are a visual extension of these interests.  

The Deal
You shouldn't be posting any images or videos you don't already own the copyright to or that isn't in the public domain to ANY place on the web whether it be Pinterest, your blog, or other social media sites. If you're a blogger, then you probably already have a set of rules you abide by, and you should stick to those same rules when using Pinterest, but make sure your rules are updated and don't infringe on copyright laws. Remember, the web is worldwide, and various countries have different copyright laws.

Can you post a link to an image on Amazon and/or Barnes Noble or some other book store? We authors do it all the time whenever we interview or review an author's work. Amazon even provides widgets for this. If you've agreed to intereview, review, or participate on a blog tour such as CFBA or the First Wild Card Book Tour, then you can pin these book cover images to Pinterest either from your personal blog or the original tour site itself.

Use discretion
If you 're pinning images and videos from other websites where you haven't requested permission or you don't even know where they got their images and videos, you're taking a huge risk. If you want to embed a YouTube video, check to see if the embed option has been enabled or disabled. If the Channel owner doesn't want their video  posted elsewhere, they will often disable the option. If they later decide to disable this option after they've enabled it and you've already shared it, your embedded code won't work and it will become a black box in that spot on your site.

Still, it is always safer to ask. Lot's of people have contacted me to repost things from my personal blog, and believe me, it is always appreciated. I would never consider it a bother or an irritation, so don't worry about that. If you're unsure, ask.

What about you? Are you on Pinterest? What are your posting rules for your blog and social media accounts? Have you had any copyright issues?