10

I'm keeping a GitHub repository that contains my personal notes. While I feel comfortable with releasing most of the things in the public domain, that repository does contain some quotes, mostly from the books I liked (random example), that might be considered as proprietary.

Even though I'm well aware that I could re-use these quotes (since they're just a sentence or two long) under fair use, I'm not sure if releasing them under public domain is a copyright infringement or not. If it is, what can I do to exclude the files containing the quotes from the license?

| improve this question | |
  • 3
    "Fair Use" is complicated, and length of material used is only partly related to it - in that you should use only an amount of the original that is reasonable to achieve your goals - mainly the goals/purpose of your work needs to be something compatible with fair use. I don't know the status of short quotes in general, but in cases of reported sayings by real people (as opposed to quotes pulled from fiction), then you can re-type them from source (effectively you are reporting them) so you are OK provided you don't just cut&paste. – Neil Slater Jan 6 '16 at 20:17
  • 2
    Related from Law.SE: Can I release someone else's work under creative commons or some other license, if its fair use? – apsillers♦ Jan 25 '16 at 18:23
  • 1
    Without a specific FLOSS license I don't think this is on-topic - it is really a general law question, and should be migrated to Law. – curiousdannii Jan 30 '16 at 14:34
  • Related question for (Creative Commons) licenses: Do I have to exclude quotations in the license notice? – unor Jan 31 '16 at 1:54
  • @curiousdannii The question says "public domain", and instruments to put a work in PD, such as CC0, can be viewed as licenses. – Damian Yerrick May 19 '16 at 2:55
1

If I were you I would always keep detailed pointers to the origin of any third-party content and their license and author details.

Whether or not fair use applies, you are not licensing the third-party quotes IMHO, but your aggregate collections of notes and your original content as well as its organization which in itself is an original copyrightable work IMHO

/IANAL /TINLA

| improve this answer | |

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.