Copyright

Copyright is principally designed to protect literary artistic and musical works as well as other products of what may loosely be called the entertainment industry - films, sound recordings, broadcasts and the like. It can also be applied to computer programmes.

Copyright arises automatically as soon as a work is physically recorded. There is no need for any formality, application or registration. Some people think that to "copyright" a work you have to put a little C in a circle on it, but this is not the case. It is also not the case that you have to register a copy with the Copyright Office or with your solicitor, although the advantage of this type of registration is that the copy of the work is date stamped and therefore forms a useful record of what existed, and in what form, at a specific date.

We are happy to date stamp copyright works for our clients, and the Copyright Office can be contacted at

Copyright Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales

In general, the period of copyright is the life of the author plus 50 years, but there are many exceptions.

The existence of copyright in a work prevents the work being copied directly or indirectly.

It is Trite law that it is works which are protected by the law of copyright, and not ideas. If an idea can be taken without copying a work, the copyright owner cannot interfere. The distinction is a difficult one to draw, but here is an example. If a photograph is taken of a landscape, that photograph will be copyright: good or bad, it will count as "artistic work". It will be an infringement of copyright if, without consent, that photograph is reproduced, for example in a newspaper, or even if an artist were to sit down with the photograph in front of him and make a painting of it. But it would not be an infringement for another photographer to take a similar photograph of the same landscape. The landscape itself is not copyright, as the photographer did not make it, the second photograph, although using the same idea as the first, would not be a reproduction of it.

In general, copyright belongs to the author of the work, but there are exceptions to this. When the actual author is in the employment of someone else and the work is made "in the course of his employment" the general rule is that the copyright belongs to the employer. Difficult issues can arise as to whether something was drafted in the course of employment, so it is always better to have these issues specifically dealt with in the contract of employment.

If you have a work in which you wish to claim copyright, then there are some sensible rules you should follow.

Firstly, you should have a clean copy of the work date stamped and kept in a safe place.

Secondly, you should ensure that no third party such as your employer is likely to claim rights to the work and if there are likely to be competing claims you should take advice immediately.