Please help me before I explode

[Mrswhiskerson]

I am starting a buisness and I want to use quotes and poetry on my products, does anyone know of copyright laws or know who I should ask?

The reason I am going to explode is all
my life I have wanted my own business and have spent years trying to think of the right thing and finally I have found it my amazing dh has helped me with names and has been so supportive , I am sonexcites it gets me out of bed in the morning and after three months of pretty bad depression it feels amazing .
Unfortunately until I know if I can use other peoples quotes I can't get started an it's driving me mad.

Also I want to give a percentage of my profits to a charity for peoplel who have suffered domestic violence , does anyone know the best charity?

Hi. Thanks for the spelling lesson I'm looking at you gawdblimey I do however feel it is rather rude to point out someones spelling mistake or grammatical error in public or on a forum.

jolly good. Except I cant count the times I have looked at websites and seen terrible terrible spelling mistakes and immediately thought well if they cant be bothered to spell check, i cant be bothered to buy from them/recommend them to others

maybe if you cant take constructive criticism, you arent quite ready for the dog eat dog BUSINESS world :)

I guess if it's above a certain age it is 'public domain' so you can use it - that's why books above about 100 years old are free on iBooks/kindle etc I think?

Not an expert by any means though!

Best of luck with your business OP :)

Just a thought, but do you have a Business Link close to you? I think they are randomly spread across the country, and ours is about to lose its funding, but they are a wealth of information for questions such as yours.
They can also give you good tips and offer training courses, networking opportunities etc.
Might be worth looking into ...
Good luck

Mrs W great idea. Hope it works out.

gawdblimey constructive critiscism is pointing out what someone is doing wrong and offering advice on an alternative way to do things therefore helping the person learn from their mistakes,

it's spelt BUSINESS btw.
Is just plain rude.

Also I have no interest in the cut throat world of businesss, I am interested in selling my products to make some extra much needed cash and to help a charity with a cause that is very close to my heart.
People can make spelling mistakes for all sorts of reasons I don't think you should be so quick to judge.

Thanks everyone for the good wishes I am so excited about this I can hardly sleep , I will try business link I have one in my local town.

Flippin' 'eck, some people eh?

Good luck to you MrsW, passion will help you a long way, what kind of products are you thinking of selling?

I wish you every success!

Yes, good luck MrsW, don't let other people's negativity bring you down.

For goodness sakes gawdblimey it was quite obviously a simple typo and I'm sure, despite your tone to the contrary, the OP knows there is a world of difference between the checking and correcting you would do on a permanent piece of commercial work and a simple post on a forum!

Good luck with your new venture op :o

Your references to "exploding" with frustration and not being able to sleep with excitement are slightly concerning. What is your most recent diagnosis? Is it unipolar depression?

textfan The © symbol shows that the original writer has exerted their rights to be recognised as the author of the work - it is there as a reminder, if you like. In a book, on the imprint page, it shows you who the © holder is and it may not be the author of the work.

For example, on MN, we assign © of our threads to MN in the ts and cs so they can reuse them as they wish without paying anyone anything, so MN, as the publisher of the 'work', is the © holder.

You don't have to use the © symbol for something to be copyrighted and you don't have to 'do' anything to © something. It is a given and as long as the author hasn't signed away their rights and they (or a company) are identified with the work, then a permission should be sought.

Even after the death of the originator, the © can be renewed and held by the estate (see above). As slowshow mentioned above, fair use does not apply if you are using the quote for commercial reasons.

So, OP, the bottom line is that you still have to apply for a permission from the © holder so do keep this in mind, OP, or you could be on the receiving end of a lawyer's letter if you quote something that's not in the public domain (i.e. free from ©) . To give you an example of something in the public domain, most nursery rhymes are not ©, but there are some exceptions. My advice would be if you are in any doubt at all, don't include it!

Good luck with your business, I hope it works out for you!

Hiya Mrswhiskerson. I do create websites. I'm currently learning web design on a Digital Media BA. I'm a mature student though, and have a decade of non-technical web management & marketing experience under my belt.

I'm at uni to learn the fun creative and techie stuff, and I need some websites projects to cut my teeth on (for free!) so I can start to build up an online portfolio.

I've got one such project going live soon, I'll send you a link when it's live so you can see what I can do (I reckon it's pretty good too, even if I do say so myself! )

I'm mired with assignment deadlines and exams until the end of May. I'll get in touch with you again after that if you like.

gawdblimey - it's can't btw.

HTH

Zachary :o

Let she who is without typos cast the first comma eh?

I think I may be thinking along the same lines as burgerclub I am by absolutely no means an expert (I want to make that very clear) but I do have a couple of friends with bipolar and you do sound a bit like you could be manic. Are you under some kind of care for the depression? It might be worth talking to someone.

That aside I wish you all the best with your venture. I'm sorry I can't advise on copyright.

Or perhaps she's just excited before we diagnose her!

Mrswhiskerson - another good source is www.plagiarismtoday.com/ I'm not sure if this has ever come up there, but the site is very comprehensive so it's worth a browse through the archives.

You've received some great advice above - speaking personally, I have to be aware of copyright issues as part of my job, and the old poems you mention will probably be ok (but still check), but quoting individuals is not as straightforward. Even if they are no longer with us, they may have left an estate which owns the rights to all their utterances, or in some circumstances (such as the Brontes), there may be organisations which control their public image. When you decide which quotes you want to use, do check and check again that they are in the public domain.

Good luck! I hope your business goes from strength to strength.

CurrySpice

"Or perhaps she's just excited before we diagnose her!"

Exactly! When I first became a freelancer I was on cloud nine for weeks and weeks. It was the culmination of years of planning and work, so when it finally happened it was (literally) a dream come true. I suspect the OP feels very much the same.

Yes maybe she is, and I am not offering a diagnosis by any means (which is why I pointed out that I am not an expert), just suggesting it's worth a thought and perhaps a chat with someone, that's all.

Do be careful OP. Just because something is listed as 'author unknown' on a website does not mean this is correct. It may just mean that site has not done good enough research. It would not be safe to think you could use such a quote just on the basis of a quick web search.

There is a mechanism for using material where you can show every effort has been made to identify or track down the copyright holder, but even so if they ever showed up you would probably have to pay them a license fee.

Do look at the sites people have recommended, and DirectGov has general business advice.

Hi thanks so much for all the help and good wishes ,
I do suffer with anxiety and depression which comes from childhood trauma but I am having counselling For it and I do feel much better ,
I am always very excitable when it comes to anything I am passionate about and I have dreamed of having my own business since I was a kid so to finally find something I can do in my spare time which is also something I enjoy is amazing especially if I can help people at the same time even in a small way.

I will look at the different sites suggested if I am doing it I want to do it properly.

Again thank you all so much , I am so excited about this and all of your good wishes and advice really means a lot.

motherfoallhangovers I am going to be so cheeky, but my DH and i are setting up a business as we speak and i have attempted to set up a website not having any idea what it really involved and fell at the first hurdle! If you need another guinea pig for you design services please get in touch [email protected] thanks

Motherofallhangovers , it would be great if you could send me a link and good luck with uni .

Babydubseverywhere , good luck with your business I hope it all goes well for you .

So sorry for the hijack Mrswhiskerson, business is at the forfront of my mind in all things these days, hope everything goes well for you too

I don't think you'll encounter any problems using very well known, established quotes.

The thing you need to be aware of is not making it look as though the person you quote has endorsed your business - that's where you can get into trouble.