Quotation school part 1: Quotation law
Reproducing what someone else has said can be an excellent way to highlight an issue and complement your own presentation. But despite the fact that quotes are so common in textbooks, they often create difficulties for the author. For when, how much and in which contexts are you allowed to quote?
Copyright and right to quote
Copyright protects literary and artistic works in a broad sense. To be considered a work, there must be some degree of originality and independence. If this is lacking, it is not a work, but on the other hand it is probably not very interesting to quote.
When people hear the word 'work', many may think of fiction, art and music, but nowadays the term also includes non-fiction, translations, lectures, teaching materials, computer programs, maps, newspaper articles, etc.
Copyright means that authors, photographers, artists and others have the right to decide if and how their work should be used. The term of protection is 70 years after the author's death.
However, there are a number of limitations to this exclusive right.
The right to quote is one such restriction. According to Section 22 of the Copyright Act, you may quote from published works if it is in accordance with good practice and the extent of the quotation is justified by the purpose. The author must be acknowledged and the text must not be distorted.
The right to quote applies mainly to texts. The possibilities to "quote" images are much more limited.
Good faith and fair dealing
But how do you know if the quote you have chosen is justified by the purpose? There are no clear limits to this, but some guidelines are useful to know.
For a quotation to be justified, it must be for a legitimate purpose. This means that it is permissible to reproduce passages from someone else's work as an aid to your own presentation. For example, the quotation can be used to criticise or illustrate the other work, to emphasise your own position or to further develop what someone else has said. On the other hand, it is not allowed to fill in your text with other people's texts without comment.
The main purpose of the right to quote is to enable it to be used in scientific, critical and polemical contexts. Some examples:
You need to be able to illustrate your own opinion by showing that others have thought the same way.
You are having a political discussion where you need to be able to reproduce statements that you are polemicising against.
You are reviewing a book and need to be able to reproduce short passages from the work you are reviewing.
Length of the quote
Thus, the right to quote makes it possible to reproduce, to a limited extent, what others have said and done. But how long can the quotation be? Again, there are no definite answers in this area. In principle, the length of the quotation must not exceed what is justified by the purpose. In principle, once you have made the point you intended to make by quoting, the right to reproduce further parts of the text ceases. Scientific contexts are usually considered to allow a slightly more extensive right to quote.
Some specific cases
Short sentences, individual lines from poems or musical texts are considered in practice to be able to be reproduced without criticism or comment. Examples of this can be found at the beginning of books or chapters.
Parodies, travesties and the like have no clear exception in the law, but are accepted in practice under certain conditions, sometimes with reference to the quotation rule.
Reproductions outside the quotation rule
If you want to reproduce a text that is protected by copyright but where the reproduction does not fall under the quotation rule, for example because it is too long or cannot be justified by analysis or critical review, you must seek authorisation from the rights holder, often the author.
Name of the originator
Under the Copyright Act, the author has the exclusive right to his or her text. But Section 3 of the Act also states that he or she has the right to be named in connection with the reproduction of the work. It is therefore important to always indicate the source when quoting.
We will discuss how this can be done in a textbook, for example, in Quotation School Part 2, which also gives you tips on which quotation marks to use in different contexts, where to place them, how to mark omitted words and passages and how to deal with shorter and longer quotations.
Free the quote from legal texts
Laws, regulations and statements by Swedish authorities are not covered by copyright. You can therefore reproduce such texts freely without having to limit their scope or seek authorisation. The same applies to texts whose term of protection has expired, generally seventy years after the author's death.