FAQs about Intellectual Property
Copyright and the law
Copyright laws aim to prevent authors of original material having their work commercially exploited by others or not having their work properly attributed to them. These laws exist to allow the creator more control over granting or disallowing permission for the use of their works.
The enforcement of these laws has become more difficult since the discovery of the internet which has opened an easily accessible portal making inadvertent and intended misuse easier.
Copyright and the Law
Under UK law copyright automatically subsists upon the creation of literary works, artistic pieces, and music. This means no formal method of registration is needed although putting in place formal protection measures are always recommended. A particularly effective safeguard is marking © on the work accompanied by the creator’s named and the date of creation.
Materials Protected by Copyright
There are certain categories which protect certain creative works under copyright law. These include:
- Musical, artistic, literary works, dramatic works and computer programs.
- Films, television and recordings of sound.
- Typographical arrangements (the arrangement of works in a magazine/newspaper)
Copyright can only subsist if the work was created as a result of independent endeavour. It is not possible to claim copyright for an idea as the work must be recorded in some way.
Length of Copyright
The law sets out specified lengths of time during which the right to copyright protection can be asserted. For music, art, literary works, dramatic works the copyright will last for 70 years from the end of the year that the creator died. For films the copyright will last for 70 years from when the director died or from when the work was last made available to the public. For sound recordings the length of time is 50 years.
Infringement of Copyright
If a person uses copyrighted material without permission of the creator then infringement will be deemed to have taken place. For example, if a third party copies and pastes excerpts from an i-book and uses them in his personal blog this would be infringement of copyright.
Exceptions to this can include material used for educational enterprises, used in libraries and public archives and works permanently placed in public places.
The seriousness of the infringement will depend on the amount of material used and whether it has been previously published.
Copyright and the Internet
The laws contained within the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 extend to reproducing works over the internet such as films, music and literary works and to computer programs and software. This has resulted in the imposition of heavy fines after distribution without ownership has taken place.
If someone copies computer programs onto discs and sells them illegally they are breaching copyright laws and both the original breacher and buyer will both be considered liable for breach of copyright.