Selling quote prints on Etsy

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Sadie5432
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Selling quote prints on Etsy

Post by Sadie5432 »

Hi

I’ve always loved inspirational quotes and book/movie quotes and would love to make prints with quotes on them which include sayings like “C’est la vie”, “in a world where you can be anything, be kind” etc. I would also like to include small quotes/phrases/lyrics from movies, songs, books etc. As I said these would be small quotes such as “mischief managed” from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or “I’m the king of the world” from the movie Titanic. Are these short simple quotes from movies or even tv shows ok to use? I would obviously give credit on the print as to what movie/book/song the quote is from too.

In terms of lyrics I would like to put some of my favourites on prints For example “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you” - Coldplay - Yellow. Or “I’m every woman it’s all in me” - I’m Every Woman - Chaka Khan. I won’t really be looking to use long song quotes or big chunks of the songs only small quotations.

Also I would like to use famous quotes and I understand that it’s ok to use quotes from someone who’s been dead for 70yrs or something as the copyright runs out but what about quotes from famous people who are still around? Like when Cher said in a 1996 interview said “my mom tells me I should settle down and marry a rich man and I said to her mom I am a rich man” which I would like to abbreviate to just “mom I am a rich man”.

I would appreciate any advice you can give me about the use of these quotes/phrases/lyrics and things similar to them.

Thank you in advance!
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AndyJ
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Re: Selling quote prints on Etsy

Post by AndyJ »

Hi sadie,

Conveniently you have partially answered your own question by quoting here some of the things you would like to use. Obviously you could see that using examples in that way was 'fair', and it is in legal terms, too. Thus the only issue we need to look at is whether doing this commercially makes any difference. And the answer is no. The quotation exception (section 30(1AZ) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988) covers all kinds of usage, whether commercial or otherwise. The only requirement is that you cite the source of the quote unless this is impractical in the circumstances. You have made it clear that you intend to provide such citations, so you can get started with your project straight away.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
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