Can I use quotes in a commercial game? (will Apple reject?)

[RobbieDingo]

Hi,

A quick question - can I use “quotes” in a commercial game?

For example, can I quote a line from a film, a book, or a person, if I clearly acknowledge the source?

Does anyone have a definitive answer to this - what is Apple’s stand point in terms of their approval process?

EDIT:

To clarify this a bit more, let’s say a famous sporting personality, or a film director has said something poignant when being interviewed - would it be permitted to print that quote in a game as a scene setter?

[VIC201]

i can tell you for german law:

UrhG § 51 Zitate
Zulässig ist die Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung und öffentliche Wiedergabe eines veröffentlichten Werkes zum Zweck des Zitats, sofern die Nutzung in ihrem Umfang durch den besonderen Zweck gerechtfertigt ist. Zulässig ist dies insbesondere, wenn
einzelne Werke nach der Veröffentlichung in ein selbständiges wissenschaftliches Werk zur Erläuterung des Inhalts aufgenommen werden,
Stellen eines Werkes nach der Veröffentlichung in einem selbständigen Sprachwerk angeführt werden,
einzelne Stellen eines erschienenen Werkes der Musik in einem selbständigen Werk der Musik angeführt werden.

Basically it says it is allowed when you use it as a base for new scientific work. E.G: like a historican who quotes another in a book.

So when you want to use it in a way like let an android in your game say “hasta la vista baby” to bring your product in the “glory light” of Terminator II you might end in an epic fail.

If you want to quote Patton when you are doing a WWII FPS you are safe.

[VIC201]

@""

To clarify this a bit more, let’s say a famous sporting personality, or a film director has said something poignant when being interviewed - would it be permitted to print that quote in a game as a scene setter?

In this case it will depend on the sentence - if you say “I am the king of the world” (James Cameron) you are safe, there is no special “treshhold of originality”
But when it is clear that you are using a sentencet that has gone over the treshhold of originality you might have a problem.

[VIC201]

Threshold of originality

[VIC201]

hmmm let me add… at the end it’s clear you want to use it like i said in the terminator II example. you just want to use it to make your game more special by adding some sentence that is really from someone else who had worked hard for his status of being famous. this way you want to profit from his work without paying for it - i guess that will not be a good idea unless the person said really something stupid like “i am the king of the world” and you don’t use his name at all.
*edit, let me also add that almost a bottle of red wine found it’s way into my body so don’t trust what i am talking *

[anon_75981385]

Apple has repeatedly said that any copyright infringement violations will be handled between the individual parties and Apple is not responsible for copyright infringement whatsoever.

So will the app get rejected for this? No, but you could get a cease and desist order from the copyright owner where they will request to Apple that you modify your app so that it does not violate any copyrights. Apple will then send you a notice saying you have to address the issue.

I have direct, firsthand experience with this as one of my apps used an NCAA logo and NCAA requested to Apple that we remove it. But the app itself was approved without any problems.

[RobbieDingo]

Thanks Vic20 Junkotron, that’s very helpful.