Warner Brothers - grrrr !!!

March 10

Unfortunately it looks as if I may have to ditch the idea of using quotes from Babylon 5 beneath all my chapter headings. Initially I contacted Warner Bros who produced the programme, believing that they owned the copyright. However, they referred me on to Michael J Straczynski’s agent. I emailed, but they advised me that he was no longer with them, and now had a new agent. What they failed to provide was this new agents contact details..... Luckily I managed to find him via the Internet. Imagine me writing to a Hollywood agent.....

A week later there was still no reply. What is it with these people? Coran suggested that I try and contact JMS via the site that is selling the scripts from B5, as I may be able to get permission that way. I received a very nice email back from a lady named Jaclyn informing me that his company, Synthetic Worlds will only grant permission to use 2 quotes from the series. The only problem is, as my book has 33 chapters, I use a minimum of 33 of these quotes. So, it looks now as if I will not be able to use any at all. I could still use just 2 of them, one at the beginning of the book and one at the end, but will have to go through them all again and think very carefully on which ones would be the best, and at this stage whether it is really worth all the hassle.

I had hoped at some point in the future, to begin work on what may become another book - the title I thought of was "Babylon Five - Science Fact or Science Fiction?" If this is true and I cannot use more than 2 quotes it will be damn near impossible to write a book such as this. I asked Jaclyn to let me have the contact details for Synthetic Worlds so I can check this for myself, as it could mean that you can only use 2 quotes free of charge, but she has not replied. Maybe I will try contacting some of the B5 websites who seem to use copious quotes, as they must have got permission for more than 2 of them from somewhere, so I find it hard to believe that I could not.

Unfair dealing

February 20

I got my first written permission back from Thorsons today to quote some of Marianne Williamson's stuff. I almost wish I hadn’t bothered, as it is valid for just one edition (first print run) of the book in English language throughout the UK and Commonwealth. I also have to send them a complimentary copy. Oh and permission is granted to reproduce the material in Braille, large type or audio only is no charge is made to the visually handicapped. There I was thinking the term publishing business had something to do with earning money.....

All of this for 11 measly words, which would probably be covered by fair dealing anyway. Oh well, you live and learn. I can't wait to see what Warner Bros say about all those B5 quotes I want to use.

Copyright

January 3

I know that when you quote direct from someone else's work, copyright permission needs to be obtained in writing. Since there are only a few instances where I do this in my book, this has not presented me with a major problem. I am currently in the process of obtaining and waiting for these permissions to come through.

What I am less clear on is whether you also need permission, or at least clearance from the publishers of works that you paraphrase or use for reference material. I have checked on the Internet, and different sites say different things, hence the confusion. If you do need permission to paraphrase then this is going to leave me with a potential problem, since I have used various bits and bobs from well over 100 other sources. How on earth will I begin to wade through that lot, especially if they need to see the bits I have written. Help!!

In the end I decided to post on a few writers forums asking for advice. It seems that you can quote verbatim up to around 200 - 300 words without needing permission. Any more than that, especially with music, and you will need written permission from the copyright holder. That bit is fine, since there is not much that I do quote verbatim. Mostly it is quotes from Babylon 5. That is all in hand, and I am waiting for Warner Bros in California to get back to me, hoping and praying that they will not charge a hefty fee.

Paraphrasing and summarizing is generally fine as long as you credit the source (which it goes without saying I have) and it is largely in your own words (which in my case it also is). There are whole chapters where I utilise just one or two others works as reference material, paraphrased in my own words, with various bits added based on my own ideas and interpretations. Basically, my interpretation of their words, re-written in my particular style.

Sometimes it is best not to bother contacting publishers, since they will land you with hefty fees, whereas if left alone, they would probably not have heard of your book. Checking book covers in my own library, very few permissions are written inside, so I can surmise that most authors do not bother to do this. All in all this is a huge relief, since it will save me a fortune in time, stamps, letters and phone calls.

Just to make sure, I also checked in the Writers and Artists Yearbook, which says:

"There is no copyright in ideas or information. In general, anyone may use published ideas and facts provided they do not copy the precise wording in which they are expressed. But be careful, it is an infringement of copyright to rely on someone else's 'skill and labour' in creating a work. The second writer is expected to check all the facts at their original source".

What this seems to be saying is that it is the words that are copyrighted rather than the ideas. Re-writing in your words is then fine, provided you acknowledge the source. If one book says for example "apples are red" then you cannot just take their word for it, but have to go back to the source that they got this information from, tracking it to its source, to make sure that the information is accurate. This as far as possible I have done.

As a safeguard I decided to ring the Society of Authors since the stuff in the Artists and Writers Yearbook was written by them. I spoke to a nice lady called Lisa Dowdeswell, who seemed to think that I was fine, and would not need written permission, agreeing pretty much with what I have already been told.