What is copyright?
Copyright protects, by law, the intellectual and economic rights of creators and publishers of literary, dramatic, artistic, musical, audiovisual and electronic works.
Copyright is essentially a property right which seeks to thereby ensure that works cannot be used or reproduced without permission of the copyright holder, allowing creators to profit financially from their creations. Copyright is one form of intellectual property (IP): other forms of IP include patents and trade marks.
Copyright protects the expression of ideas, rather than the ideas themselves. As soon as an idea manifests itself for example as a piece of writing, a photograph, a piece of music, a film, or a web page, it is protected by copyright.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 is the law which governs copyright in the UK. As long as the work is original, copyright protection is automatic. Though not a requirement, the use of the copyright symbol ©, followed by the name of the copyright owner and the year in which the work was first published is the most useful convention for indicating that a work is under copyright.
First copyright ownership usually belongs to the author or creator of a literary, musical or artistic work. However copyright can also be assigned or sold to another individual or organisation; for example, an author may assign some or all of their copyrights to a publisher.
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act states that copyright in works created in the normal course of employment is usually deemed to reside with the employer, unless the employee's contract states otherwise.
The term for which copyright exists for literature or artistic works is usually the lifetime of creator, plus another seventy years after their death.
Copyright owners have exclusive rights to their work. These include the rights :
- to copy a work
- to issue copies of the work to the public (including by rental or lending)
- to perform, show or play the work in public
- to broadcast the work or make it available online
- to adapt the work or do any of the above in relation to the adaptation.
Anyone who does any of the above without permission or in situations not covered by statutory exceptions is infringing copyright and therefore breaking the law.
Common copyright questions
How do I register my copyright?
Are there any exceptions to copyright?
What happens if my work is used outside the UK?
What are "moral rights"?