Using an unknown quote in artwork

December 20, 2006 11:38 AM

If I use a quote from an internet source (not famous, but from a blogger, etc.) in an art collage, without crediting the source (because I cannot find the source), what possible trouble could I get into? Does this sort of random, "I heard this" violate any kind of copyright law or anything like that?
posted by agregoli to Law & Government (10 answers total)

It pretty much depends on whether you're using it to make money for yourself, or whether you're preventing the source from making money, or whether you're damaging the source's reputation.

But since you don't know the source, just be upfront about that and credit it to 'overheard' or something. If the person who wrote the blog you read happens to wander into your show and see your collage, you can apologize. I don't see how it could possibly get worse than that.
posted by bingo at 11:43 AM on December 20, 2006

Do you mean you read it in a blog and now can't remember which one? Or it was quoted by the blogger and they didn't know the source either? Maybe if you post the quote someone here can ID it for you.
posted by loiseau at 11:58 AM on December 20, 2006

try searching for the quote on blogsearch.google.com.

i'd use 'overheard' as the source.
posted by Izzmeister at 12:07 PM on December 20, 2006

If you have the exact quote, it should be very easy to locate it with a reasonable search engine.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:21 PM on December 20, 2006

How long is the quote? If it's a sentence or two, I don't think you could possibly get into any trouble. If it's several paragraphs, yeah, you want to find the source.
posted by languagehat at 12:33 PM on December 20, 2006

Best answer: This seems to fall under most reasonable definitions of "fair use," that is, use that does not require formal copyright permission (and possible fees). And you seem to have made a good faith attempt to find and credit the author.

Stanford has an excellent and very helpful page on this:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 12:50 PM on December 20, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you - I have made an effort to find it, and the quote is about a year old at this point, so it might have passed on into blogger oblivion. Just curious at the off-chance that it gets used and someone recognizes it. Probably a pretty small chance, of course.
posted by agregoli at 1:07 PM on December 20, 2006

The quote is even more likely to be covered under "fair use" if your work is "transformative" if it has a different purpose or meaning.

The test for whether ... [a work] is “transformative,” then, is whether it “merely supersedes the objects of the original creation, or instead adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning, or message.” Campbell, 510 U.S.
from I/P Updates

It also helps if your use of it is not commercial.
posted by bobobox at 1:52 PM on December 20, 2006

Fair use pretty definitely, and no-one who sees it is going to do anything about it anyway. You might lose a mark for having an improperly referenced quote, depending on how tough your lecturers are.
posted by biffa at 2:33 AM on December 21, 2006

Response by poster: I am not in school, and I don't know where you got the idea I'd have marks or lecturers. Just an artist over here. ::waves::
posted by agregoli at 7:40 AM on December 21, 2006