Does an organisation need permission to make its own abstracts or summaries of articles or books?
You do not need permission to make an abstract or summary of a book or article unless the abstract or summary reproduces a “substantial part” of the way the information is expressed in the source work. An example from US law concerned a half page, 300-word synopsis of a three act, forty-six page opera. The publisher of the opera unsuccessfully sued the publisher of the synopsis. The court held that the synopsis did “not use the author’s language … [but gave] just enough information to put the reader on inquiry, precisely as … the review of a book or the description of a painting induces the reader to examine further”. The court in that case contrasted an abstract with an abridgment, which it described as a “colourable shortening of the original text”, indicating that people are more likely to need permission to make an abridged version of a work. An example of an abridgment which infringed copyright is found in an early Australian case. In that case, the publishers of the Gippsland M
Related Questions
- Do we need to seek copyright permission for books, media and journal articles the Library already owns?
- How many CECs do I get for authoring or co-authoring books, journal articles, or accepted abstracts?
- Does an organisation need permission to make its own abstracts or summaries of articles or books?
