Do you need to get permission to use reviews?

I don't know the rules...but I would certainly ask before posting a review. Just my two cents. If the review is online, couldn't you just post a link?

I think that you are free and clear as long as you credit the source.

Also, you have consider the purpose of the piece you're quoting. The point of the review is to inform about your project, so there's a sybiotic relationship.

"Cracking read."
I. Lovett
Springfield Tribune Herald Observer
6/6/06​

As long as it says that, I would have thought you were covered. Likely as not, even if that isn't the case, you're providing free advertising for the Springfield THO and it's GOOG advertising because if you have fans and they see a great review from that source, it follows they will like that newspaper as it has a similar taste to them. They should be cool with it.

I would imagine that quotes would be fair use as long as you credited the source. I mean, we don't get George Bush's permission to quote him do we? As for the whole review, I wouldn't bother with re-printing it. Most people just want to know a few blurbs about it and that's it. About the only people who read reviews in their entirety (except for reviews in popular mags and newspapers) are librarians and buyers for book stores. And speaking as a library employee, if a book is popular enough or critically-acclaimed enough to generate a big buzz, the review is irrelevant; we order the book.

Reviews come in best with niche titles or under-the-radar works, and most consumers would be content even then with just a few quotes.

I'm a reviewer, so I have definite opinions on this subject. Presumably, online booksellers like Amazon have blanket permission from the periodicals to reproduce entire reviews from Publishers Weekly, etc., but aside from that, I don't believe that entire reviews should be re-posted without permission, even where they are anonymous. Reprinting quotes is fine--but if there's a name on the review, IMO you ought to get permission from the author before reprinting it in its entirety. It really ticks me off when people reprint my reviews without asking first--especially where they don't attribute them or provide a URL to my website or the original publication in which the review appeared. (If they do ask, I nearly always say yes.)

- Victoria