# Posting passages from novels

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [May 14, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877 "2005-05-14T22:53:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877/1 "2005-05-14T22:53:35Z")

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Is it allowable or is it a no-no like posting complete song lyrics?  
There’s a passage in a book I’m reading that I would like to share as it’s very interesting, a story within the story, that can stand alone easily.

It’s about two pages long.

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**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877/2 "2005-05-14T23:00:56Z")

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In Hindsight I probably should have asked this by e-mail… oh well it’s asked now.

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877/3 "2005-05-15T01:54:02Z")

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The registration agreement says:

> [@](#):
>
> You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by the operator of the SDMB, except as permitted by the “fair use” provisions of the U.S. copyright laws (in general this means brief excerpts only). You agree to abide by the wishes of the board moderators in interpreting and enforcing these rules.

Depends on how the administration sees it, but 2 pages sounds a bit long. Not harping on about the “email the admins!” schtick – but emailing in this case may give you a faster response.

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877/4 "2005-05-15T02:06:44Z")

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If it’s that compelling, by you sharing it with the rest of the group, wouldn’t that be somewhat of a spoiler for them as well?

Plus, that’s really stretching fair use, don’t you think? Two pages of anything tends to be a lot.

So no, I don’t think so.

your humble TubaDiva

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-passages-from-novels/303877/5 "2005-05-15T18:39:37Z")

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Also, if it’s a sort of “story within a story”, then that might warrent considering it a work in itself, so that two pages would be the entire length of the work, certainly not a “small portion” as called for by Fair Use.

And even if it were public domain, two pages is a pretty big chunk to be posting on the Board. While there’s absolutely no law against it, I would not recommend posting two full pages from, say, Shakespeare.