Tech Law  »  Basic Copyright Law

  

Introduction

Copyright protects what is known as the expressions and results of creative expression. Therefore, you can protect literary, artistic and recorded works by copyright. The benefits of this sort of protection is that it has no formalities to actually invoke, and is said to be immediate (it arises “before the ink is dry upon the paper”. Whilst it is simple to put in place, the fact that it is so pervasive means that there is no register of copyright-protected works, so it is very common to use infringing copyright-protected material – even sometimes without knowing it.

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Types of Copyright

There are two different categories of copyright:

1. ‘Classic’ copyrights, which cover original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (also known as LDMA works);


2. ‘Entrepreneurial’ copyrights, which cover films, sound recordings, published editions, broadcasts, Internet podcasts etc.

The rule of thumb is that if you cannot find a category for your work, then you cannot copyright it. For example, for many years Computer Programs were not classified in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and as a result they could not be protected by copyright, though they were added later. The type of work that you are looking to protect will affect how long the copyright actually lasts for, so again it is important to know exactly what it is you are protecting. The different periods of copyright protection are:

• Literary, Dramatic and Musical Works:    The normal duration of the life of the author plus 70 years from the end of the year of the author’s death. If the author was an employee, then the period would be 70 years from the date of the death of the employer.


• Computer Generated Work: 50 years from creation of the work.


• Exploited Copyright Works: This applies to copyright works where more than 50 versions of them are made, for example, making more than 50 lamps to a particular designer’s lamp design.

Who owns copyright?

The quick answer is that the initial copyright is owned by the author of the work, or their employer if they are an employee and the work was created as part of their employment (and that there was no agreement to the contrary). If the author was commissioned by someone, the unless the commission agreement states that the copyright transfers, the author will still retain the copyright.

It is therefore really important to make sure that any agreement for design work, text, computer programming etc. is properly drafted and covers all these points, as you may not own the copyright to the works that you have paid for.

How do you get copyright?

As said above, copyright applies to creative work ‘when the ink is dry’ (i.e. when you have actually ‘done’ them), but in order to be eligible, you must first pass three tests:

1. The work must be original – this means that it must be the author’s own work, and must not be copied from anyone else.


2. Minimum Effort – this mean that the work cannot be completely trivial. Therefore, a certain amount of effort will need to go into the creation of the work. There are different tests here for the different types or categories of work.


3. Recorded – essentially, the work must be actually recorded, which can include ‘written down’.

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