The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

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AsHLeX
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The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#1 Post by AsHLeX »

Hi everyone! Thanks for reading.
So, my question is... what's the legality of using short quotes as mini references in my visual novel?
Say, something like "What is dead may never die" (Game of Thrones) as part of something the character says.
There's nothing else that points to a game of thrones reference, just that one line (that's part of what the character says for other reasons)
Are quotes like that copyrighted?
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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#2 Post by Elsa Kisiel »

Legal matters are complicated because it depends a lot of the context. (And the country you live in)

I think that sentence should be alright though. But if you are worried, you could change the wording a little bit ?
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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#3 Post by AsHLeX »

Thanks for the advice!

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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#4 Post by fleet »

Standard disclaimer. I am not a lawyer; for legal advice, contact an attorney where you live.

If that one line is the only reference to Game of Thrones, you should be okay.
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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#5 Post by Tremarl »

Using movie quotes is perfectly legal. You cannot copyright the English language. Hell if I wanted to, I could write a book and call it Harry Potter. I can't sell it under that name, because of trademarks, but I could distribute it all the same.

Copying substantial parts of the movie plot and script would be breach of copyright.

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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#6 Post by AsHLeX »

Thanks for the advice fleet and Tremari!! Yeah, that seems to be the gist of what I'm getting. Just double checking on what everyone else seems to think. Thanks again!
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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#7 Post by papillon »

Tremarl wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:52 pm Using movie quotes is perfectly legal. You cannot copyright the English language. Hell if I wanted to, I could write a book and call it Harry Potter. I can't sell it under that name, because of trademarks, but I could distribute it all the same.

Copying substantial parts of the movie plot and script would be breach of copyright.
You CAN get in trouble for using quotes without permission, even if it's only a sentence and not a substantial section. It's highly unlikely, especially with a random indie game, because nobody's going through these things with a fine-tooth comb looking for possible rips. But legally, this idea isn't correct.

If a phrase is very short and fairly generic, copyright won't cover it because that would unreasonably stifle creativity. So something simple like "Today is a new day!" is not a copyright issue. And "What is dead may never die" is probably too short to be a problem. And you can often use a quote if you're discussing the quote, or even if your characters are talking about the quote.

But stuff like quoting song lyrics or having funny little quotes at the beginning of chapters is actually more legally complicated than many people think.

You might just want to google quotes copyright and see what comes up for better overviews from different sources.

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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#8 Post by Imperf3kt »

Keep in mind the fair use law (which applies in America only, but other countries have similar laws, such as fair dealing)

Don't forget that fair use in itself has a bunch of restrictions and requirements you must meet and it has nothing to do with being 'fair'
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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#9 Post by Tremarl »

papillon wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:32 pm
Tremarl wrote: Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:52 pm Using movie quotes is perfectly legal. You cannot copyright the English language. Hell if I wanted to, I could write a book and call it Harry Potter. I can't sell it under that name, because of trademarks, but I could distribute it all the same.

Copying substantial parts of the movie plot and script would be breach of copyright.
You CAN get in trouble for using quotes without permission, even if it's only a sentence and not a substantial section. It's highly unlikely, especially with a random indie game, because nobody's going through these things with a fine-tooth comb looking for possible rips. But legally, this idea isn't correct.

If a phrase is very short and fairly generic, copyright won't cover it because that would unreasonably stifle creativity. So something simple like "Today is a new day!" is not a copyright issue. And "What is dead may never die" is probably too short to be a problem. And you can often use a quote if you're discussing the quote, or even if your characters are talking about the quote.

But stuff like quoting song lyrics or having funny little quotes at the beginning of chapters is actually more legally complicated than many people think.

You might just want to google quotes copyright and see what comes up for better overviews from different sources.
It is not possible to copyright the English language. Quotes/1 liners are simply not covered. They may be shown as evidence in relation to a larger breach, such as if the characters likeness was also copied. As it provides contextual evidence.

There is literally nothing stopping me having a character called Roy who says Bite my shiny metal ass to every other character.
Now if I make Roy a robot, who is a complete sleeze. Then I might run into trouble for copying Bender. But otherwise if that is their only similiarity there won't be any problem.

At least this is the law in the UK. It may vary for your country or other countries in Europe/US etc. I know the US can be a bit funky sometimes with copyright law.

Besides most copyright law suits are a form of trolling, where a big company or publisher tries to threaten a small publisher to remove competition. Whether, there is actual copyright infringement often plays little roll in this dynamic as 99% of the time the small company being picked on simply can't cover the legal fees so has to capitulate. . You see the same thing with patent trolling.



(As a side note the reason why copyright law ends up being so complex is because its a complete value judgement by the judge at first instance. The law generally provides guiding principles. Hell, in the UK we had a paper who notated the speech of a gentleman in public. The speech was public domain, but the notation was considered its own work. So no one else could publish that person's speech. Bizzarre right?)


Useful article https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-to-ke ... th-lawyers - More specifically in relation to fan-fiction, which would be a very blatant derivative.

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Re: The legality of using movie quotes in a commercial game

#10 Post by AsHLeX »

Thanks for the tips everyone! It was very useful reading all of those information, so I appreciate it :)
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