Forked Thread: Pull-Out Quotes

[Raven Crowking]

Forked from: Lovecraft in Public Domain?

True. But my point still stands as well. Trademark does not expire, but it does require maintence or it can be lost. As long as a company vigorously maintains it there is no expiration based on the duration from its inception.

I wonder if you could give me a quick bit of (non-binding) advice?

I'm working on a free all-or-mostly-OGC version of the game to share with those whose playstyles coincide with mine enough to interest them. I would love to use pull-out quotes to indicate what various game mechanics are supposed to represent in-world. In this case, I mean pulling out a line or two from pulps and fantasy novels to indicate what is meant. For example, when describing a bull rush, I might want to use a line where Conan or Tarzan performs one.....with full credit to the original source.

(Similar, in a way, to the quotes on the contents pages of Dungeon Magazine when it was in print.)

My question is, would fall under fair use?

Any advice would be appreciated.


RC

 

[S'mon]

Ouch, that's way complicated.

1. Fair Use quotation typically has to be for the purposes of criticism or review (not necessarily CoR of the thing being quoted, though!). Not sure how your use would fit here. US fair use is not precisely determined in scope, but if you're trying to get a judge to expand the concept of fair use to include your case, that's an up-hill task.

2. A single line of text is rarely going to be substantial enough to attract copyright protection, though. I can't think of any examples. OTOH the music industry has managed to get tiny music samples held to be protectable IP.

Edit: I suggest using lines from works that are in the Public Domain. That includes most of REH's Conan stories. You can find them online in places like Guttenberg.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Thanks.