Copyright Act

‘The sweat of a man’s brows, and the exudations of a man’s brains, is as much as a man’s own property as the breeches upon his backside’.

Sterne, ‘Tristram Shandy’.

The law of intellectual property protects things which are created by people’s skill, labour, and investment of time and money. Patents protect scientific developments, and trademarks to prevent unfair advantage being taken of the goodwill of established businesses.

The law of copyright protects two kinds of investment. It protects authors’ labours by copyright in books, scripts, articles and so on. It also protects the investors who provide the technology necessary to produce broadcasts, films and records. Copyright is the exclusive right to use material in certain ways.

The law of copyright is important to journalists because it determines what they can quote or use in their reports. It is also important to establish what rights a journalist, newspaper or television company, have to exploit their own work, and prevent others from taking the benefit of it.

It is true that there is no copyright in ideas, nor is there copyright in news. But the law does protect information which is expressed in a particular way. Anyone can report the fact that the SAS killed an IRA bomb squad. But one newspaper cannot use another’s report verbatim, and a television company cannot lift another’s footage of the event.

The law of copyright is extremely complex. At present it is all based on statute, the Copyright Act 1956. A major reform after a series of piecemeal reforms, Government Committee reports and Green and White Papers, is now taking place. The Copyright Designs and Patents Bill, introduced in 1987, is still proceeding through Parliament.

The new bill is intended to consolidate and modernize the law. It is likely to introduce new principles into English law, for example the author’s ‘moral right’. At the time of writing, some issues, particularly the question of ownership of copyright in newspaper articles, remain unresolved.

Copyright works

Copyright does not protect ideas or information from being copied; it protects the material form, or manner of expression, of information. If a particular joke is recorded in a cartoon, copyright will protect that cartoon, so that others cannot reproduce it without permission. However, anyone is free to use the same joke in a different way. The same news event may be reported in many different forms. The law strikes a balance between the right of authors to benefit from their work and the public’s need for a free flow of information.

There are two main classes of copyright works. The first is original, literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. The second consists of sound recordings, films, television and sound broadcasts and cable programmes. The first class, with its requirement that the work be original protects the author’s rights, the second those of the investor.

Literary work

It includes newspaper articles, or features, books, plays and poems; in fact almost any words written down or recorded will qualify. There is no requirement of literary merit. Letters are subject to copyright, but where a letter is sent to a newspaper the writer permits publication of it in the newspaper on at least one occasion.

Dramatic works

Plays are the conventional dramatic works, but choreographed work and mimes are also included. The scenarios and scripts for films may also be protected.

Musical works

Copyright exists in musical works once they are written down. If music is recorded without ever being written down, it may be protected only as a sound recording. For example: if a record is made of a jazz quartet improvising, another complication is that where a song is written, the tune and the lyrics have separate copyrights. One person may own the words and want to use the song in a particular way, while the owner of the music could refuse.

Difficulties in ownership of the music may also occur if one person writes the basic theme while another adds an improvised and highly significant part to the finished piece. There is great potential for difficulties where members of a band write or record material together without deciding who is to own copyright, as a number of actions involving well-known artistes have shown.

Artistic works

It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings and photographs irrespective of any artistic quality. Cartoons and photographs for newspapers and television are covered by this definition. Buildings and models for building, and other works of artistic craftsmanship are also artistic works. Like literary works, skill and labour must go into the artistic works but the lack of any artistic merit will not deprive the finished work of copyright protection.

Originality

Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works must e original before they can be protected by copyright. The essence of originality is that the author of the work must have devoted skill and labour to its creation. A slavish

Other copyright works

Copyright exists in any sound recording, film, broadcast or cable programme. These are referred to as secondary copyrights. For example: If a tv programme is pre recorded, copyright will exist in the broadcast itself, in the film that it broadcast and in the script and any music devised for it. Making a video recording of a television programme may infringe all of these copyrights.

Source: Internet