Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK copyright

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK copyright law is designed to offer protection to the author of works which are specified below: literary works, including books, webpages, computer programs and instruction manuals artistic work, including technical drawings, photographs, diagrams and maps dramatic and musical works, including sound recordings films, videos and broadcasts, including those on cable and satellite databases, whether paper or electronic

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Copyright covers • copying; • adapting; • distributing; • communicating to the public by electronic transmission (including by broadcasting and in an on demand service); • renting or lending copies to the public; and, • performing in public An organisation owns copyright for work created by employees, but contractors hold copyright on any work they create for the organisation unless a separate agreement is made.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Copyright is assumed as soon as a work is produced – it does not have to be registered or specified. Copyright does not cover names or slogans, products or ideas. Copyright is part of the term Intellectual Property

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Computer programs are protected under Copyright law in the same way as literary works. Changing a program by using a different computer language or code is considered to be "adapting" a work and storing any work in a computer amounts to "copying" the work. Displaying a work on a monitor usually involves copying requiring the consent of the copyright owner. Temporary copies will not need permission. The selection and/or arrangement of database contents may be copyright protected however database right may exist in a database. This is an automatic right which protects databases against unauthorised use of database contents. Database right lasts for 15 years from the making but, if published during this time, then the term is 15 years from publication.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Under UK law (other countries may have different rules) copyright material sent over the Internet or stored on web servers will be protected. If you want to upload material to the Internet or WWW or distribute or download material that has been placed on the Internet by someone else you must make sure you have permission to do so. Some countries state that a work should be marked with the international © mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication. This is not essential in most countries, including the UK. However, marking in this way may assist in copyright infringement proceedings.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Length of Protection Sound recordings are generally protected for 50 years from the year of publication. Broadcasts are protected for 50 years and published editions are protected for 25 years

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Copyright also exists in other countries and the UK is a member of several international conventions. Well known memberships are the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). Protection overseas can also arise from obligations in the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which forms part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement. As regards IT, the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty was introduced to deal with issues not covered by the Berne Convention. Find out more about the Berne Convention and WIPO Copyright Treaty