Intellectual Property Rights and copyright> Copyright

Copyright is the right to prevent people from copying without permission. Certain other acts are also restricted, including:

• issuing copies to the public;
• broadcasting; and
• adapting/amending the work.

Copyright is in place to protect the labour, skill and judgment that a creator expends on creating an original piece of work. The law states that, in general, someone who wants to make a copy of a work must gain permission from the copyright holder in advance.

Whereas frequently the creators and publishers want reward for their investment and want to control how their work is disseminated, users want wide access to materials. Copyright attempts to balance these needs by granting creators rights to protect and control the use of their work, but at the same time putting in place certain exceptions and limitations to this control.

What can be protected by copyright?

An idea has to be fixed, i.e., recorded in writing or some other way, for it to have copyright protection. Copyright is then automatically applied without the need to register it, or get it published. Various works can be covered by copyright. Examples are:

• Literary, dramatic and musical works;
• Films;
• TV broadcasts;
• Artistic works;
• Sound recordings;
• Databases;
• Material on the Internet, including webpages and e-mails.

The most important question to ask yourself concerning copyright is what are you going to be doing with the material you want to use? Is it for private study, criticism, etc.? This will determine whether copyright exceptions may be applied. See the Libraries and Copyright section.

The duration of copyright depends on the type of work it is applying to.

• Literary works, i.e., work written, spoken or sung - 70 years after the death of the creator;
• Dramatic works, including dance and mime - 50 years after the death of the creator;
• Sound recordings and broadcasts - 50 years from creation;
• Artistic works, including painting, photographs, illustrations, sculpture - 70 years after the death of the creator; and
• Films - 70 years from the death of the director, screenplay writer, or composer of any music, whoever was the last to die.

Copyright is extended for a given number of years after the creator of that work dies, or that same number of years after the date of publication if the copyright holder is not known. If the work is jointly authored the term of copyright will depend on which creator is the last to die. Works which are not published are subject to complex rules which are not considered in detail here.

It is very important if you do make copies to acknowledge sufficiently the copyright holder. Sometimes the copyright holder of the work is not known and it may be difficult to trace them. Such works are called orphan works. In this circumstance it is very important to ensure that you have proof of having searched for the copyright holder. If you have exhausted your search and still want to put the work in the public domain, then you should publish an invitation for the copyright holder, or someone who knows who it is, to contact you. This will help minimize difficulties if the copyright holder subsequently demands damages for your use of the material.

Creative Commons

Creators may want to keep copyright control, but also allow people to use their works in certain ways, i.e. keep "some rights reserved", rather than "all rights reserved". This provides more of a balance between the needs of creators and the public. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organisation that provides people with a way of defining the level of copyright control they have on their works. A number of different CC-licences are available which creators can assign to their works. They can choose from a set of conditions given below.

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the licence that governs your work.

Llicences also depend on the area of jurisdiction they cover, e.g. there is a CC license specifically for Scotland. On this website the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland license has been applied.

General copyright resources