Should the music industry allow writers to quote song lyrics without permission?

Yes

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by John Newell

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I listened to an interview the other day (April 3, 2008) on CFRB in Toronto between Dave Trafford the station's news editor and a elderly but still famous musician/composer by the name of Buddy Guy. I only caught the tail end of the interview. But what they were talking about was musicians stealing each others lyrics and the actual sounds they invent to create riffs and so on. Dave was asking Buddy about someone having stolen his work and how he felt about it. Buddy answered to the effect that sure he was mad at the time but the fact is musicians "steal" each other's sounds and lyrics all the time. If they didn't music couldn't evolve. He went on to say that there was no point in being upset about it because if you are in the industry in a serious way, you are going to do it yourself.

So if the musicians are blatantly stealing each other's work with generally no repercussions why should an author who merely wants to quote a short passage or a phrase from a song be forced to ask permission? It makes no legal sense at all and I'm sure if the extent of the "file sharing" that goes on within the music industry were explored in that fashion in court, the musician would soon find him or herself paying court costs.

In my own case, I'm writing a history about a specific one year wonder muscle car known as a Rebel Machine and tying the car to historic events and the music so mental images can be evoked in context. Why should I have to ask permission from a song writer to quote when I have to do no such thing for a speech writer. Both speech writer and song writers are paid for their work. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Another aspect is that when a writer is including quotes, the eventual finished work is free publicity for the song writers and the musicians. The author never gets paid for the free advertising. Certainly it hasn't been asked for but regardless, there is a real bankable benefit. Historic lifestyle works like mine keep the music and the times in the public forum. Consequently, the flowerpower/muscle car era are still topical while the latter half of the seventies through the nineties just don't have the sparkle.

Then there is the term public domain. Many of the old rock and roll songs have been used in so many ways they have become part of our everyday spoken and written language. The amount of mileage the lyrics get in every day use is phenomenal. If every time someone wanted to reference a song through a quote, the songwriters would have to respond. They'd be spending all their time writing responses. The entire notion of an author needing permission to quote on that basis alone makes the practice impossible to carry out with anything like efficiency.

At least one other contributor talked about how long it takes a musician/song writer to respond to queries. My experience is that unless you are "known" like Stephen King, you aren't going to get one. Not because they don't want you to quote; more likely because of the volume of mail they receive.

So my policy is that when quoting, I do my best to identify the singer, band, and song writer. I mail or e-mail the songwriter for permission. I wait six months for a reply which is entirely reasonable as far as I'm concerned. If they can't be bothered to send me a yes or a no in that time, then I proceed with the quote. I have sent out dozens of requests and have never received one back yet. They can't all be suffering from terminal ignorance - or can they? I doubt it. But being too busy with day-to-day affairs is entirely believable.

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