Copyright Law PDF

Copyright Two good reasons for copyright You need to know how much of other people’s work you can use without their permission. You need to know how to protect your own work! - The act governing copyright in this country is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, although this h...

Copyright Two good reasons for copyright You need to know how much of other people’s work you can use without their permission. You need to know how to protect your own work! - The act governing copyright in this country is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, although this has been amended several times by European Union directives. When does copyright apply? - Copyright applies immediately a work is brought into existence - Copyright applies no matter how works are presented – books, TV, CD, DVD, mp3, light show, firework display, dance show Originality - Any work must pass the ORIGINALITY test - Someone’s skill, time, labour, expertise, judgement etc must have gone into the work. Who owns the copyright? - First owner is usually the creator of the work. - An employer holds copyright to any work produced by an employee in the course of their employment - Freelance journalist owns copyright to their work - unless agreement to contrary - Freelance can sign over copyright Who owns copyright? - Copyright owner can give various rights to use – e.g once-only - Copyright is property and can be sold, split up or transferred - For example: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55213529 - Copyright expires 70 years after creator’s death (although there are different time limits for various works) Copyright and pictures - Copyright is normally owned by the person who takes the image, unless they are an employee. - The copyright to a picture which has been ordered from a freelance is owned by the freelance (or their employer) Moral rights over pictures - Any person who commissions a photograph for private and domestic use has the MORAL RIGHT to prevent it from being used in a public way (eg: in newspapers, TV, online, advertising). Copyright in older pictures - For commissioned pictures taken before August 1, 1989, the person who commissioned the photograph owned the copyright and not the photographer Screengrabs - Publishing a photo – for example a screengrab – of a TV or film image without permission can infringe copyright. - Even showing a photo on a TV programme without the copyright owner’s permission is also an infringement, unless there is a defence Copyright and the internet/social media - Just because something is available to the public online, doesn’t mean it is safe to copy it and re-publish it - Publishing photos copied from a social networking site may infringe the copyright in the site and/or the copyright held by the person who created the photo, who might not even be aware that someone else has uploaded a copy Social networking sites - Media regularly ‘steals’ material, especially pictures - No permission granted – taking a risk - Usually credit to avoid action…but still NOT SAFE - Embedding a hyperlink or other link such as a YouTube video onto your site is safe, so long as the material is made public (no paywall) and has been uploaded to the original site with the owner’s permission - Literary - song lyrics, books, documents, newsletters, newspapers, magazines - Listings/timetables are protected - Artistic – photography, painting, sculptures, maps, technical drawings. - Sounds recordings, films and broadcasts - Dramatic – plays, dance - Musical – recordings, scores - Films – broadcast, cable programmes - Typographical arrangements – magazines, websites Reader letters - A reader sending a letter for publication has by implication licensed the media organisation to publish it once, but retains the copyright - If the media organisation wants to publish it again, they would have to get permission from the reader Case study Meghan Markle letter to her father - copyright action against the mail on sunday. Copyright and news - There is no copyright on news, facts, ideas or information, but there is copyright in the way it is selected, arranged and presented to create an original work. Defences  - Fair dealing - Public interest – this defence is rarely used. Fair dealing - reporting current events - Specifically doesn’t include pictures (as otherwise photographers wouldn’t be able to make a living) - Short extracts of video are allowed if criteria met - You can use some quotes, but not all otherwise you are taking advantage of the copyright holder - Instead, you can paraphrase/ use reported speech as this is not covered under Copyright law What is substantial copyright infringement? - Infringement can be in relation to the whole or a substantial part of the work - ‘Substantial’ is determined by a qualitative test, not a quantitative one, which means there may be an infringement even if a small, but important ,portion of the original work is copied. - For example, if you have a 5 minute video there might only be 10 seconds or so that’s important - so if you use all 10 seconds (the valuable segment) it coud be classed as ‘substantial’ infringement. Fair dealing cases If the copyright work is obtained by unfair means, then fair dealing may not apply Other fair dealing defences - Fair dealing for criticism or review – allows you to use copyrighted material as part of a review e.g. text from a published book or short extracts of a film so long as they are publicly available, you cite the original source and you are not taking commercial advantage - Fair dealing for private study/research - pics I have used in this powerpoint presentation are included - Fair dealing for use of quotation – e.g. cinema posters Public interest - This defence can be found in common law and not statute. Rarely used but may apply in certain circumstances. - Can protect the use of photos and all of a document if the purpose is to expose it as an immoral work, or one damaging to public life, health and safety or the administration of justice or incites immoral behaviour - Case study: Reading Post ​Penalties for breaching copyright Civil action for any breach: In the civil courts, the copyright owner can: - obtain an injunction preventing people from infringing their copyright  - sue for damages - obtain an order for the possession of the copyright work and any equipment used in the infringement - seek costs - force the defendant to account for the profits made from the infringement Severe breaches = criminal offence