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The Law of Copyright

Copyright law differs from country to country, but they all have one thing in common: the protection of the rights of the copyright holder in his/her intellectual property for a reasonable period of time. What follows is the situation as it stands in the UK at the beginning of the year 2000. The law in the rest of the western world is very similar, but there are small differences between countries.

What is protected?
Copyright law protects any original work produced in any medium, whether traditional or electronic. Ideas are not protected. If you send, for instance, an outline of a play to a theatre company and they get one of their writers to create a play based on that outline, they have not broken the law. If, however, you send them a completed play and they change bits of it and produce it under another writer's name, then they have broken the law and are open to prosecution.

The test the law will apply is whether or a not a "substantial" proportion has been copied. The definition of "substantial" is quite fluid and tends to be based on what a reasonable, disinterested person would consider to be so.

Characters are protected: if you were to write a James Bond novel without the permission of the Ian Fleming estate, then you'd be in trouble. Of course, you could write a novel about a bus driver called James Bond who drinks nothing but tea and has no success with women with impunity! It is not the name but the character which is protected.

What protection is given?
The protected work cannot be copied in any form or medium, even if the copying does not result in any profit to the copier.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Up to ten percent of a book may be quoted for purposes of review or for - a little more difficult to establish, this - "fair dealing" in terms of, say, a study into a particular topic. The best advice is always to quote as little as possible. For shorter works - a poem, for instance - the ten percent rule doesn't apply. After all, a tenth of a ten line poem is, in every sense except the mathematical, a more substantial proportion of the whole than a tenth of a 50,000 word volume.

It should be clear that it is much more difficult to establish a case for reproducing a copyright image. I know of no case law in which the rule has been applied to images - which is not to say there is none, of course, just that I haven't heard of it! The safest approach with copyright images is not to use them at all.

What if you don't know who the copyright holder is?
Another grey area. An action for infringement would probably succeed unless you could prove that you had first taken all reasonable steps to trace the copyright owner. You would also have to state clearly that you are prepared to make the appropriate payment and/or remove the offending item if the owner should ake him/herself known and require it.

How long does protection last?
In the case of what we might call a "corporate publication", copyright lasts for seventy years from the date of publication. When the creator is a named individual, it lasts for seventy years after his/her death. In the case of joint authors, copyright lasts for seventy years after the death of the last to die.

Do I have to register copyright?
In the UK, no. There is, in fact, no way of registering copyright in Britain. You don't even have to put the (c), followed by the date. If you really want to establish your right to be regarded as the copyright holder, then you should lodge a witnessed and dated copy with a solicitor, bank or safety deposit box.

In Britain full copyright exists in a work as soon as it is created: nothing else is needed. In other countries, they do things differently and some form of registration may be necessary.

I was commissioned to write a play. Who owns the copyright?
It all depends on your agreement with the company. The best advice I can give here is to work through an agent who will negotiate the best terms for you. Even if you didn't have an agent before the offer of the commssion, you should get one once the offer is made. You will save money - and heartache! - in the long run.

I wrote a book/took photographs/designed a logo for my employer. Who owns the copyright?
The employer. Anything produced by an employee as part of his/her normal work belongs to the employing company.

I commissioned a photographer to do some pictures for me. Who owns the copyright?
You do, but the photographer owns the negatives!

I must emphasise that this article is based upon my understanding of copyright law as it obtains in the UK. It is based on years of experience of producing copyright works, but I do not have any legal training and so this should not be taken a definitive statement of the law. I cannot accept any liability for any loss which results from the use of the information in this three-page article. If you are in any doubt whatsoever, you should take legal advice.

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©Peter Lathan 2001