: Is it legal to use a song lyric on the back of a wine label if we give attribution to the creator? I would like to use a quote from a song for my new wine label. We would use quotation

@Jamie945

Posted in: #Copyright #Lyrics

I would like to use a quote from a song for my new wine label. We would use quotation marks and give credit to the artist. Is that ok?

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@BetL639

@BetL639

You will need permission.

If it is a song, you probably need to credit the music publisher (and possibly the music label) as well as the person who wrote the lyrics. If you are granted permission, they'll tell you the format the credits should take.

Fair Use (a.k.a. Fair Dealing in the UK) is a defence in law, not a permission or a Get Out Of Jail Free Card. And it only covers the territory for which the law was drawn up. So a Fair Dealing defence could be used in a UK court, but is not valid in a USA or South African or Japanese court.

EDIT: Also be careful of folks telling you that you can use it because it is Insubstantial Part (a.k.a. Insubstantial Use). Songs are short, so even a few lines may be over the limit of what is considered acceptable. Also, very important/crucial bits of a work are excluded from Insubstantial Part - for instance the punchline to a joke, or the bit of a crime novel where the murderer is revealed. So very recognisable song lyrics (say the chorus) may be excluded from being used as Insubstantial Part.

Of course, if the song lyric is out of copyright, there is no need for permission. In most countries, that is 70 years after the death of the lyricist. So you can't use 'Imagine' because John Lennon only died in 1980.

I'm not a lawyer, but part of my day job involves clearing footage, stills, quotations etc for TV. We have lawyers on the staff to handle the really tricky stuff.

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