Long prose passages (whether a single citation or several shorter quotations from a single work). Generally, up to approximately 250 words can be used without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. (Note: A credit line is, of course, still necessary.) If the passage(s) you are borrowing exceeds 250 words or is a significant portion (roughly, more than 10 percent) of the original work, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to use it.

Any passage from a play, excerpt from a poem, excerpt from a song, or any table, diagram, exhibit, photograph, or illustration that you wish to duplicate or adapt. Your permission request letter should stipulate whether you are reproducing or adapting the original work. You have made an adaptation when you use material from another source and make minor changes to it—for example, you omit one column from a table and/or add another to it. The key to recognizing an adaptation is that most, but not all, of the original material (including its visual presentation) will be identical in your version.

If there is a question as to whether permission is needed to use materials from another source, it is best to err on the side of caution and obtain permission from the copyright holder.

You can use any of the sample permission forms below.

Once you have the permission form(s) signed and dated by you and the person or organization who owns the rights, you can send the finished form(s) to use as a pdf attached to an e-mail, or mailed to our snail mail address: