When You Do Not Need To Seek Permissions
Information we as artists need to refresh ourselves in order to be the most effective in our work.
When do you NOT need to seek permission?
When the work is in the public domain. This isn’t always a simple matter to determine, but any work published before 1923 is in the public domain. Some works published after 1923 are also in the public domain. Read this guide from Stanford about how to determine if a work is in the public domain.
A note about song titles, movie titles, names, etc.
You do not need permission to include song titles, movie titles, TV show titles—any kind of title—in your work. You can also include the names of places, things, events, and people in your work without asking permission. These are facts.
For questions and further reading: http://janefriedman.com/2012/01/23/permissions/
The author of this post is Jane Friedman who teaches digital media at the University of Virginia.
I questioned recently whether I could put a movie title or book title on artwork. I assumed I could not because of a discussion last month in the forums with no definitive answer. I realize now I can and you can too.
