So I already know that quoting from song lyrics is a no-no, unless you can afford the copyright fees. Which we can't. We already faced that situation in one of our books, but the pre-publication solution is pretty simple: we're just going to replace the quoted lyrics with a much older folk song that is no longer under copyright.
I'm facing a different issue right now in our WIP. It's set in 26 BC and we're keeping it very historically accurate... not quite Saylor-level, but as close as we can get.
One of our characters is quoting some lines from contemporary poets: Sextus Propertius and Horace. Obviously, the copyright on the originals expired a couple thousand years ago. But what about the translations? If we use a 19th century translation as a base and change some of the words around a bit, is that OK? If we use a modern translation, would we have to pay copyright?
I'm facing a different issue right now in our WIP. It's set in 26 BC and we're keeping it very historically accurate... not quite Saylor-level, but as close as we can get.
One of our characters is quoting some lines from contemporary poets: Sextus Propertius and Horace. Obviously, the copyright on the originals expired a couple thousand years ago. But what about the translations? If we use a 19th century translation as a base and change some of the words around a bit, is that OK? If we use a modern translation, would we have to pay copyright?
