Fair Use and Infringement

As a public relations writer, you will use information and materials from a variety of sources. Therefore, it is important for you to understand thoroughly the dividing line between fair use and copyright infringement.

Fair use of materials, in general, can be done for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. If you are writing something and want to use a quotation from a copyrighted article or book, you may do so as long as you give proper credit to the author and the source.

If you quote a lengthy passage from an article or a book, however, it is best to get permission. In general, using a paragraph from a 1,000-word article is acceptable, but using several paragraphs might constitute copyright infringement if permission has not been obtained. Writers should also be careful about using whole paragraphs of copy­righted material with only a few words changed. If the content and structure of the sentences are virtually the same, this constitutes not merely copyright infringement but also plagiarism, a form of theft.

Writers of company newsletters and magazines, primarily using information for news reporting purposes, generally are within the boundaries of the fair use concept. Writers who prepare materials directly supporting the sales of a product or service (news releases, advertisements, promotional brochures), however, need to be more concerned about copyright infringement.

The use of a selected quotation from an outside source in a product news release or sales brochure, for example, should be cleared with the source. The reason is that you're directly profiting from using someone else's material to sell goods and services.

In addition, using selected quotes may distort the author's meaning. For example, a research report may give a new computer product an overall poor performance rating but mention some good things about the product too. To use only the favorable quote from the review in a news release or advertisement, the computer company should clear the quote with the report's authors to avoid possible lawsuits.

Titles of books and plays cannot be copyrighted, but the principle of unfair compe­tition applies nevertheless. Lawyers say that a public relations staff should not copy anything if the intent is to capitalize on or take advantage of its current renown. The key to a lawsuit is whether an organization is in some way obtaining commercial advan­tage by implying that a service or product has the endorsement of or is closely allied with the literary property. This is also a problem in using names and logos that closely resemble registered trademarks of well-known companies.

The use of cartoons, illustrations, and photographs from outside sources (either previously published or unpublished) always requires copyright permission. Copyright infringement also extends to videotaping television documentaries or news programs if the intent is for widespread use of the material to internal or external audiences.

Another category that always requires copyright permission is musical material. The holders of musical copyrights do not permit use of any part of their compositions without prior written permission. It is forbidden to quote even a part of a lyric or to play only a few bars of a tune. But also keep in mind that most classical music, especial­ly that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is in the public domain and can be used without permission.