: Re: Attributing a real quote to a fictional character I've looked at a few fictional character quote questions on here but none seem to hit onto my question: Can I attribute a real quote to a

@Carla500

Vote Up Vote Down

Legally, in the US or the UK or countries with a similar legal tradition, the older the quote, the more famous the person quoted, and the more famous the quote itself, the safer you are. Quotations from works that are centuries old, as well as very famous quotes from the modern era, are held to have passed into the public domain. If you have specific reason to think it's likely to be a real problem, consult a lawyer - but in practice, no one's going to sue you for quoting something that's already appeared in a million magazine articles. Things might be a little more awkward if the author is alive and not seeking your vote, especially if he or she makes a living by writing.

Assuming you are in the US, the author of this blog post has written a useful summary of the situation there about using quotes on products made for sale. This presumably includes works of literature; things are more relaxed about stuff you give away. (Although I wouldn't guarantee that there will be no adverse reaction to the use of extensive quotation from living people or works still in copyright in fan fiction even though it is given away. But given that the entire field of fan fiction defies the laws of copyright a little extra scarcely matters.) She in turn quotes from a webpage produced by the University of North Carolina: When U.S. Works Pass into the Public Domain. There's a less user friendly but more comprehensive summary of US copyright terms produced by the Cornell Copyright Information Center here.

Turning to the question of whether a deliberately misattributed quote works as part of a story, it depends upon the tone. When the reader spots the misattribution he or she will momentarily be lifted out of the story and reminded of the real world. For a humorous work, or a scene with humour in it, that's fine. Some people above have already quoted the "old Vulcan proverb" from Star Trek VI. I also liked a scene in Stargate where Teal'c claimed that an old proverb of his people was "Do not fix that which is not broken". Talk of proverbs brings me to a possible in-universe justification for using an adapted quote which would work even in a serious setting: that some truths are so universal that they are likely to be independently expressed across different worlds and species. For instance many, many real-life cultures have their own version of the "Golden Rule", "Do unto others as you would have done unto you". Come to think of it, that might be a good rule to follow when quoting other writers.

(0)

Login to post a comment!