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Would their be copyright on a quote I found randomly on Instagram?
This might sound like a numb question but I found a quote on Instagram awhile ago that stuck with me and I really want to use it for a design for my clothing brand. It was just on a mental health/ inspirational quotes page. Would there be copy right issues if I used it and would it be best to just re word it or scrap it.
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1 Reply
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This page probably took it from somewhere else. If you are making money off of someone’s work, even if it’s just words, you may get in legal trouble if the original artists is not okay with that (rarely are or wants a %).
If it’s an old quote from like Confucius or the Bible, you’re good.
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To start, copy the text in quotation marks into google and search it. See if there is anything on who originally said it and where. If the person is living, or has lived within the past century, it’s probably best to not use it. Should you decide to rephrase it in your own words, one might say you could potentially use it without an issue. The risk is greater for you as you stated you want to use it for merchandise/your clothing brand. Should anyone come after you, they can request all money from sales and even potential sales, if you did not have their express written consent.
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Not a dumb question, and something to pay attention to as I recently learned the hard way. As a motivational post we used this quotation: ““You can’t go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.” The quotation was attributed to C.S. Lewis, as per information from [goodreads.com](https://goodreads.com), which I have always found to be reliable. Turns out there is a controversy about this quotation, and no evidence that Lewis was the author, so Facebook greyed out the post. Lesson learned – either rework the words, or seriously research the author.
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whenever you use something search for it online and see if people already use it. It‘s a lot cheaper to do a research online and change your idea than paying later on for licensing problems ^^
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No way would I use a quote without permission unless it is in the public domain or some kind of quote that’s been circulating for centuries with no identifiable author or such.
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