Thursday, 12 November 2015

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is current UK law. It gives the creators of literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works the ability to control and limit the way their work is used by others, and rights cover broadcast/public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting/lending to the public. 

When do rights occur?
Copyright is an automatic right, and arises whenever an individual or company creates a piece of work regarded as an original.
Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not usually considered unique enough to be covered by copyright laws.
Work that expresses an idea is protected, but the actual idea is not. (E.g. An idea for a book is not protected, but the actual content of the book is. Another person can still write around the same idea, as long as they are not directly copying.)

Restricted Acts
Without consent of the owner, it is against the law to:
     Copy the work
     Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public
     Perform, broadcast or show the work in public
     Adapt the work
Legal acts include:
     Private and research study purposes
     Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes
     Criticism and news reporting
     Incidental inclusion
     Copies and lending by librarians
     Format shifting or back up of a work yo own for personal use
     Caricature, parody or pastiche
     Acts for the purposes of royal commissions, statutory enquiries, judicial proceedings and parliamentary purposes
     Recording of broadcasts for the purposes of listening or viewing at a more convenient time
     Producing a back up copy for personal use of a computer program

Source(s): copyrightservice.co.uk









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