copyright european-union
Is permission needed to put an extract from a book in thesis as a quotation?
<p>I want to use a couple of lines from &quot;What is life?&quot; by Erwin Schrödinger as a quote on the front of my thesis. Would I need permission from the publisher or would that be covered by fair use? Also, do I need to attribute the quote properly?</p>
<p>In my thesis, I have:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The quote from Erwin</p>
<p>-- Erwin Schrödinger - What is life?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I reside in Germany so EU laws would apply.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I want to use a couple of lines from "What is life?" by Erwin
  Schrödinger as quote on the front of my thesis. Would i need
  permission for that form publisher or would that be convered in fair
  use?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>There are close cases of fair use, but this is not one of them. This is unequivocally and clearly fair use. It is a brief excerpt of a much larger body of work, it is for non-commercial use by a student, and it is for educational and academic purposes (presumably to advance science).</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Also do i need to attribute the quote properly</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes. This is necessary both because of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors%27_rights" rel="nofollow noreferrer">moral rights of the author</a> under E.U. copyright law (assuming that works by Erwin Schrödinger are still in copyright), and for reasons of academic ethical considerations.</p>

<p>It is still in copyright, because he <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">died on January 4, 1961</a>, which is 58 years ago. So, in countries that protect copyrights for the life of the author plus 50 years (the minimum required by the Berne Convention) this is out of copyright, but in countries that protect copyrights for the life of the author plus 70 years (e.g. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_lengths" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Germany</a>), the copyright is still in force until January 4, 2031.</p>

<p>Also, even if the work were out of copyright, as a matter of academic integrity, you would be required to attribute the quote in an academic thesis in any case. </p>

<p>Quoting someone without attribution in academic work is considered plagiarism, and could result in your thesis being stricken and also in your degree being revoked in a serious case. Government ministers in the E.U. have been forced to resign over plagiarism in their academic work as students in recent years. This is taken much more seriously in Europe than it is in the U.S.</p>
