united-states copyright intellectual-property fair-use commerce
Quotes from Public Speech or book with POD business?
<p>Please note, This question is a bit different than this one:
<a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/11808/intellectual-property-issues-associated-with-a-public-speach">Intellectual Property Issues associated with a Public Speach?</a></p>
<p>I am trying to sell some T-shirts online by adding my artwork. At the same time, I found that some T-shirt for sale online have some well-known quotes. I wonder where the line is where a well-known quote becomes copyright infringement. I found this one
<a href="https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Your-time-is-limited-so-don-t-waste-it-living-someone-else-s-life-by-virusn1/45379132.IJ6L0.XYZ" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Your-time-is-limited-so-don-t-waste-it-living-someone-else-s-life-by-virusn1/45379132.IJ6L0.XYZ</a></p>
<p>This is a well-known quote from Steve Jobs and I assume his Intellectual Property. Can people just use it and make money off of it? Would it make a difference when the shirt also had Steve Jobs' name on it? Or what if Steve Jobs were still alive?</p>

<p>Public speeches are protected by copyright. Under the current copyright law of the <a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag">united-states</a> that protection will not expire until 70 years after the death of the author. (Items published prior to 1978 are generally protected for 95 years after the year od publication.) In other countries the term varies, but the shortest that I know of is 25 years after the death of the author.</p>
<p>You could only use this presumably copyright stastemetn in one of two ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>By asking the copyright holder for permission, and getting it. The holder might now be Jobs, or someone (or some firm) that Jobs transferred the copyright to. Note that the holder has no obligation to respond to any request, and that a non-response must be taken as a &quot;no&quot;. The holder m,ay charge any fee that s/he/it thinks proper.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Under a claim of <em><strong>fair use</strong></em> (or a similar exception to copyright outside the US).<a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/a/66608/17500">This recent LAW.SE answer</a> describes fair use in soem detail.  Note that whether a given use is fair is always highly fact-based.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In the case describesd in the question, the use is commercial, and might harm a market or potential market for the author. Also it is in no significant way <strong>transformative</strong>. All of those would tend to weigh against a finding of fair use. The quote is [probably only a short excerpt of the original, which would tend to favor a fair use finding.</p>
<p>If you really want to make a business of this, you would be well advised to consult a lawyer with copyright experience</p>
