What are the rules for using song lyrics in novels?
Song lyrics are a very touchy business. Just like poetry, it’s different than a novel where you can quote a short piece of it with no problem, but poetry and song lyrics are short and there are copyright laws that protect them. Most publishers won’t let you use the lyrics. You can use the title of a song because titles aren’t copyrighted. Both of my publishers will not let me use lyrics and I think that’s pretty much the same for all publishers. I found this on a site called The Writer at http://cs.writermag.com/ QUOTE: Originally posted by shatteredday Don’t. There is no provision in fair use for using anyone else’s copyright work in your own fiction at all. Fair use covers review, academia, including classroom, library, and homework, critiques, and similar specific nonfiction uses only. “The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: quotation of excerpts in a review o
