What is copyright?

Copyright comes into existence as soon as a work is ‘created’ and recorded in writing ‘or otherwise’. It does not need any registration (unlike trademarks and patents through the Patent Office) to achieve protection in law. Nor does it need the familiar copyright symbol © next to it to achieve copyright protection. Copyright owners receive their protection in law through the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 (Copyright Act). The UK is also a signatory to various conventions and treaties that extend the legal protection for authors/owners works to an international level. This legal protection means that authors/owners of copyright works are the only authority (excluding any provisions to the contrary in the Copyright Act) able to grant use of their works (or parts of their works) across any media whilst the works remain in copyright.

Copyright in a work whether literary, dramatic, musical or artistic, continues to the end of the year, 70 years from the death of author. For example, if an author of a published text book died in 1940, his/her work(s) will be out of copyright at the end of 2010. This means that after that date all work(s) created/written by that author may be used (or adapted) freely without any further clearance.

The copyright for recordings and broadcasts continues for 50 years from the end of the year in which the work was first recorded or first broadcast. Note that whilst the copyright in recordings or broadcasts may expire after 50 years this does not include the content (music, artwork etc as above) which may still be in copyright for 70 years after the author’s death.

Copyright in performances also continues for 50 years from the end of the year of the first recorded performance. Again this applies only to the performance and does not apply to ‘content’, which could be a stage play (or music performance), involving a script etc that (as above) may still be in copyright for a longer term.