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Nursery Rhymes
- Thread starter Barbara
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Tim James
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- Mar 16, 2018
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What I have read suggests that "traditional" nursery rhymes may be in the public domain and can thus be quoted and used as required, certainly an online solicitor on this forum thinks so.
forum.freeadvice.com
However, the website has lots of disclaimers about taking no responsibility for the accuracy and legality of posts to the forum so I wouldn't rely on the response to be absolutely correct.
This person is asking a question about translation of them but it still covers the same copyright issues.
But I would still be quite wary of more modern ones.
Quoting one or a few lines from one in a novel is not unusual.
Intellectual property of nursery rhymes translations
Hello, I would like to create an iOS/Android app with nursery rhymes for children. I am not sure what are the legal implications in using the lyrics. For example, there are many different lyrics for London Bridge out there, does each version belong to the person who published it ? Also I would...
This person is asking a question about translation of them but it still covers the same copyright issues.
But I would still be quite wary of more modern ones.
Quoting one or a few lines from one in a novel is not unusual.
- Nov 10, 2017
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Thank you for this @Tim James. Interesting link.
I'm thinking of using some old well-known ones. But I might go the 'play safe' way and compose my own.
I'm thinking of using some old well-known ones. But I might go the 'play safe' way and compose my own.
Susan
Basic
- Oct 17, 2018
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@Barbara, you could try searching Project Gutenberg or other public domain sites for 'nursery rhymes' or something specific - if it's there, you can use it. Here's Andrew Lang's The Nursery Rhyme Book.
Leonora
Basic
- Oct 25, 2018
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Project Gutenberg is fantastic.
KG Christopher
Basic
- Oct 25, 2015
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nursery rhymes a surely in the same vein as 'folk stories' think of hans christian andersson or the brothers grymn. they sourced their material from well layed down sources... i am pretty sure 'humpty dumpty' harks back to the english civil war...or even 'Ring a ring of rossies' is a refference to the pbubonic plague in London ??? cant see anyone giving you a hard time if you use something that old ?
Quillwitch
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- Jan 1, 2015
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Youŕe back! Awesome! Good to hear from you!
RK Wallis
Full Member
- Feb 15, 2019
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yes, @Leonora is right:
In the UK, copyright in artistic works generally lasts for the lifetime of the artist plus 70 years after their death. Some exceptions apply, for instance for engravings that were unpublished at the time of the artist’s death.
In the UK, copyright in artistic works generally lasts for the lifetime of the artist plus 70 years after their death. Some exceptions apply, for instance for engravings that were unpublished at the time of the artist’s death.
Dan Payne
Full Member
- Feb 12, 2019
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But you need to do some due diligence. It's easy (but rare) to be caught out by something that ought to be public domain, but which has ended up in possession of an estate. I'm thinking of "Happy Birthday" here - until 2015 it was actually under copyright, and a $14M settlement was reached that made it public domain. As a rule of thumb I would say the more well known the nursery rhyme, the more likely it is to be public domain, but a quick Google search ought to clear up any uncertainty.
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