I got the following email from reader Susan Kirkland, who needed to vent a little bit on the differences between Canadian and US fair use laws:

Your bit on fair use is an opportunity to highlight the irritating differences between US and Canadian law. Those Canadians are a PITA when it comes to fair use. Even though I am in the US, my Canadian publisher insisted I get a usage license from Bob Dylan to simply quote a stanza of lyrics at the beginning of my book--a stanza, mind you. US law says I can, no worries, as long as I'm not putting it to music; it falls under the fair use rule. But, Noooooooo (Steve Martin style, please) not in Canada. No reproduction in any way without a signed contract, music or not.

And it was a royal PITA, too, because apparently this is one of the few songs Bobbie holds the license to personally.

The same was true of a passage I quoted from Ms. Manners, where I credited the author, the publisher, even cited the page and edition. Noooooo, not in Canada.

I had to find Judith Martin's agent and get a written permission to abide with Canadian Fair Use Law. And something I couldn't use at all, which removed any summary from an entire chapter on cold calling for freelancers was a quote on Truman. My source, Bartleby's Quotation section, listed the source as probably from but unverifiable. WHY can't that be the source? Does that invalidate the entire quote? I don't think so . . . but Noooooooo, it does in CANADA.

tongue in cheek,
SDK