ABOUT COPYRIGHT

What is Copyright?

The primary source of copyright law is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright lasts for 70 years from the death of the creator of the work. In general, the Act provides that the author or creator of a work is the first owner of any copyright in that work. There are a number of exceptions, the most relevant being where the work is created in the course of employment. Here the employer is normally the owner of any copyright. The owner of the copyright has the right to prevent third parties from, without permission: copying the work; issuing copies of the work to the public; performing or broadcasting the work; adapting or amending the work. If someone carries out one or more of these 'restricted acts' on the copyright work without the permission of the owner, or authorises someone else to do so, then that person is infringing the copyright in that work.

EU Directive

Legislation has now been passed in the European Parliament which has implications for UK law on copyright and its application. This 'harmonisation' process was largely instigated by rights holders
anxious about piracy and loss of income, particularly as a result of the impact of new technologies. Substantial lobbying on the part of user groups, especially in libraries and education, has reduced considerably what might have been drastic effects and restriction on usage for educational and non-profit making purposes.

For the full text of the Directive (in pdf format) see the Patent Office Website at:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/pdf/implement.pdf

NEWS - EU Directive update:
The UK government is currently working on a draft Statutory Instrument relating to the new EU Copyright Directive, setting out how the Directive will be transposed into UK law. The intended timescale had been to have this ready by the end of 2001 but the draft legislation will not now be ready until spring of 2002 for consultation.

For the consultation document see the Patent Office Website at:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/eccopyright/index.htm

Why is Copyright important?

Intellectual property is increasingly important in society and Universities. Reflecting this, there is a greater emphasis on the holding of such rights and the levying of charges to provide revenue to rights-holders in return for the use of their work. In this climate, respecting copyright law is very important, especially in an academic environment where the majority of teachers are also researchers with a strong interest in protecting and respecting these rights. The University regards the protection, and appropriate use of such material, within the law, as being highly important.

Links:

The Government IP site:
http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/index.htm

A list of publications on copyright from JISC:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub/copyright/

A policy briefing document on electronic copyright from JISC:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/sm05_copyright.html

the official Patent Office site at:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/index.htm