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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42968
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> Do Songs and Paintings have the same rules and protections as Books and Film for copying (into written form).

Songs and paintings are protected under copyright laws, but it might be helpful to understand [**what copyright is meant to do**](https://www.lib.purdue.edu/uco/CopyrightBasics/index.html).

Copyright is not intended to rob you of your creativity under the threat of lawyers. **Copyright is intended to protect an author from being republished without their permission.**

**Plagiarism** is a separate issue where you attempt to pass some else's work as your own without attribution.

In your case you are not attempting to republish someone else's work, you want to write an _original_ story based on ideas suggested from another artist's work.

There are recognized exceptions, but your examples are very safe. Even the "Green Book" derivative, as long as there are key differences in the story and you are not ripping off character names and chapters wholesale, you are fine.

One of the big determining factors (you could call it a pillar) of copyright violation is the **Market Effect** your work has on the original. Would someone buy your book thinking they are buying "Green Book 2"? Are you deliberately trying to trick readers into believing your story is the "real" version, or a sanctioned sequel? Has the success of your book effected sales of the original?

In some situations a **market effect** isn't possible. Your novel cannot financially compete _against_ a painting or song, they are not in the same market. This is sometimes called "transformative", a novel is not a painting is not a song and there is no possibility the buyer would be mistaken (however, they might mistakenly believe your version is "official" or sanctioned by the original artist, which might be a market effect).

You can quote song lyrics (with attribution), but you will need permission to republish the entire song as a text in your novel.

Original score: 8