Copyright issue

Suemarie · Jul 3, 2015

Hello!

In my new book, I mention a teenager singing a song by a certain famous singer. So I do mention the name of the song and the singer's name which I believe is okay. But in the book it is a teenager singing the song. Is that okay? Got scared that I goofed. The singer is one of several who actually wrote the song. I know it's okay to say someone was 'listening' to a song by such and such. But is it okay to say someone else was singing a song by such and such. Hope this makes sense. LOL. Got worried that maybe it was wrong to say someone was 'singing' a song by a famous singer if she didn't happen to write all the lyrics herself.

Any thought?

Thanks, Sue

cornflake · Jul 3, 2015

Suemarie said:
Hello!

In my new book, I mention a teenager singing a song by a certain famous singer. So I do mention the name of the song and the singer's name which I believe is okay. But in the book it is a teenager singing the song. Is that okay? Got scared that I goofed. The singer is one of several who actually wrote the song. I know it's okay to say someone was 'listening' to a song by such and such. But is it okay to say someone else was singing a song by such and such. Hope this makes sense. LOL. Got worried that maybe it was wrong to say someone was 'singing' a song by a famous singer if she didn't happen to write all the lyrics herself.

Any thought?

Thanks, Sue

I'm not positive I understand your question.

Do you mean you've got something like:

Miley sat on the grass, singing Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On,' until someone thankfully ran Miley over with a Sherman tank to stop the caterwauling.

Or do you mean you've got someone singing the lyrics, which are spelled out in the book?

The former should be fine, the latter isn't.

Suemarie · Jul 3, 2015

Ha! Ha! Thanks cornflake - you made me laugh. Yes - it is exactly like your example of Miley singing Celine's song. Sorry for the confusion. The reason I was concerned was - just for fun - I contacted the manager of this particular singer and said that her song inspired me and thought I'd send a copy. So the manager sent me the address of the organization that represents this singer. Just thought she might like to know since the song is so beautiful that - in my book - I had a young girl sing the song by this singer. So no lyrics were mentioned. That's okay, right? Didn't want to send it and then be slapped with a lawsuit - LOL - although I'm sure only about 2 people will read the book anyway. LOL.

krinaphobia · Jul 3, 2015

The copyrighted material is the lyrics of the song, not the title, so you should be okay. I happen to know of an instance (a comic book series called, of all things, Sex Criminals) in which the writers were denied used of the lyrics of a song by Queen, but they were able to write in the story about not using that song, and they mentioned the song by name. Going off that example, if you don't use the lyrics, you're fine!

Suemarie · Jul 3, 2015

Hi Krinaphobia - thanks. So it's just the lyrics that are copyrighted. Makes sense. So I'm not going to worry about it. Thanks for responding.

Copyright issue

Suemarie

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Suemarie

krinaphobia

Suemarie