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17th Century
German calligraphy |
Dear Rich: I am a calligrapher. If a client asks me to write a favorite quotation or poem in calligraphy, do I need to get permission? The calligraphy would be done once and not be reproduced. It would likely never be exhibited except in the client's own home or office. No problem. As we have indicated in previous entries, you're free to use quotations (that is, short statements of one or two sentences). This conclusion is partially based on
fair use principles, and partially based on the fact that copyright
doesn't protect short phrases or "
de minimis" uses. In addition, you don't need to worry about using quotes that were published before 1923 (see
this chart for more on that).
FYI Dept. Although typefaces are
not protected under copyright law, hand-written lettering (calligraphy) can be protected in some cases. In other words, you may be able to stop those who copy your hand written version of the quotation without your authorization.
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