I witnessed an issue that occurred with a friend of mine and a graphic request and I figured now was a good time to cover this. The person requesting wanted a profile header with song lyrics on it. She then began flip-flopping about whether she wanted the lyrics on there because she "discovered" that Taylor Swift had copywritten the lyrics and she was afraid to use them. 

I hate to break it to all of you, but all song lyrics are copywritten. From what I understand, the song title is not, though I can't confirm it. It makes sense since there are multiple songs with the same title. 

You can use copywritten items in your work as long as you give credit to the original creator. As long as you aren't claiming it as your own then you can use it. You can say, for instance, "Janie began humming along with the radio. Shake it off, by Taylor Swift was one of her favorite songs." If you want to put in the song lyrics, that is where it becomes a little tricky and you need to fully cover your butt if you want to use them. Usually, if you aren't posting the entire song and you give credit to the artist, then you're safe. Just be cautious how you use works that are copywritten.

I've used song titles in my books, mostly when characters are singing along with the radio, like the above example I gave. 

This would also go for literary works. Usually, content and characters are copywritten. You'll see books where authors put quotes from famous works at the beginning of chapters. The author and title of the work are always cited. 

It's a fine line to walk to keep things within copyright laws. The best thing to do is to think about whether you'd want someone to use the content you're considering if it was your work and if the answer is no, then avoid it. 

I don't know everything about copyright laws, and for the most part, they confuse the heck out of me. You need to be a lawyer to understand all the legal speak, but the basic principle is, don't steal stuff because it's not nice.