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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47199
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47199
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Older meditations are almost certainly in the public domain. In the United States, [anything published before 1924 is in the public domain](https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/) as the copyrights have expired. Newer works may also have expired copyrights, depending on the circumstances.

While copyright law varies from country to country (and you should check in the country you're publishing in), it's a fairly safe bet that anything 100+ years old is fair game. This is true even if someone has reprinted them in a book they have then copyrighted. The specific portions that are quotes from older works can not be copyrighted (though commentary about them can be).

If the meditation is newer, it may be protected under copyright, in which case you need to get permission from the author (or copyright holder if different).

And here's the twist...

## [Translations are derivative works](https://copyright.uslegal.com/enumerated-categories-of-copyrightable-works/translation/) and they may be copyrighted as such.

For example, say you wish to quote a meditation written down nearly 2000 years ago in the Pali language. There's no question this is in the public domain. But the English translation of the specific one you want to use? That could be from 10 years ago, and copyrighted. Ditto for translations in to any other language, if it was in the last century.

Many texts have multiple translations into the same language and they will have been done at different times, by different authors, with different copyright status. And yeah, you have to check them one at a time. Sometimes the endnotes of the book (or elsewhere) will give more specific sources and offer thanks for reprint rights. Other times you just have to search.

Original score: 2