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Excerpts from Print

Books, Short Stories, and Essays
Excerpting other people's books, short stories, or essays usually requires permission from the holder of that piece's copyright. Works that are in the public domain do not require permission, but they do need to be cited correctly. Initially, the University of Nebraska- Lincoln (UNL), Division of Continuing Studies (DCS), Research and Development Unit (R&D) used the same standards as those applied to printed materials for determining the size of excerpts:

If an excerpt is under 500 words and less than 10 percent of the whole work, it can be used with the proper citation without the permission of the copyright holder.

However, attorneys later advised that the regulations were less clear about what was permissible for online excerpts. They advised CLASS™ to request permission for all excerpts, regardless of their size.

As was the case with images, the Project had varied success in obtaining permissions for print excerpts. In some cases, authors and publishers were happy to grant the project the right to use their work in a CLASS™ course. Others feared that the Internet provided a less secure environment than print for publishing text, so they refused to allow their work to go online--feeling that there was a greater risk for copyright infringement.

The use of a for-profit course distribution entity increased the problems with copyrights. The literature courses had the greatest negative effects because many modern writers refused to allow even the smallest excerpt of their work to be used if a for-profit company was involved. At least one course was never released because several entire units had to be eliminated due to copyright issues.

Poetry
Generally, CLASS™ found that poetry requires the permission of the copyright holder unless the piece is in the public domain--regardless of the size of the original poem or the excerpt.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles
Most newspaper articles were fairly easy and inexpensive to obtain as long as there were no photographs involved. Magazines also generally granted permission, but their fees tended to be higher. Again, permissions issues increased once class.com became involved in the marketing process.

The best recommendation is to keep it simple and be selective where you may need to include a pricey resource. Usually, you can use web references rather than inclusions.

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