I'm trying to compile an e-book from different copyrighted books, websites, some government sites, etc. Do I need to ask for permission from every single copyright owner to be able to use i.e. Couple pages, a chapter or just a quote from their material? Thank you, Mel

All Answers To Questions

Unfortunately, the answer is: it depends. You can't take too much without permission, but you can probably take a little. In practice this is likely to mean that you can use a quotation, but not as much as a couple of pages and certainly not a whole chapter, without permission.

Yes you do need permission. You're allowed about 50 words without permission in most cases, but for anything longer you would definitely need permission. The term for using works with/without permissions is called "fair use" and I included a source below.

Of course it is! What you are doing is stealing somebody else's work. You can't compile a book, or an ebook, from other people's copyrighted material. It's illegal. What you can do ("fair use") is to use short quotes, for instance if your ebook consists of book reviews. But the vast majority of your book has to be your own work. You can't just take chunks of other people's work if you are not adding anything to it.