Can I use facts from articles and newspapers in my novel?

Using news sources as fodder for a novel

I'm writing a book that deals with a long-running news story. I'm getting my facts from newspapers and magazines and turning the story into a novel, based on fact. Do I have to get the sources' permissions to use the facts? How do I give proper credit in the book to these sources?

The copyright laws do not protect facts -- only the particular way an author expresses them in a work such as a newspaper article, magazine, or book. If you are only taking the facts from news stories and putting them into your own words as part of a novel, you do not need to obtain permission.

If, on the other hand, you're doing a substantial amount of verbatim or near-verbatim copying from news stories, be careful. This is pure pilfering -- similar to the cheap brand of copying from the encyclopedia that most of us did in fourth grade when called upon to write a report on Mesopotamia. If chunks of your novel have really been written by others, you certainly must seek their permission to use their words.

All legalities aside, from a purely practical standpoint, it would seem to me that you would get the juiciest information from going directly to original sources -- the main characters, neighbors, relatives, bystanders. That way, you could avoid the whole permission issue.

Authors of novels and other fictional works are not required to give credit to the sources of their inspiration, but you may certainly do so if you wish. And remember that Golden Rule about Doing Unto Others. If someone else took their inspiration from you, you would like to be acknowledged.