Law Lecture, week 4 -Copyright.

Today's law lecture was taken by a guest from the BBC- Peter Hodges, who is an expert in copyright.  It is a very short, but very important chapter. Copyright protects intellectual property, which include products of other people's creativity, effort and skills. It covers music, lyrics, films, pictures, design rights, graphics, etc. For work to be under copyright protection it has to be original with lots of effort and research put in to the work. The piece of work has to be shown to someone as well; otherwise, if the work is hidden or had never been seen by anyone, then it is not protected. Copyright prevents from stealing somebody else's work. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right in the UK to: make copies of the work, issue copies to the public, perform the work in public and broadcast the work.



When it comes to Journalism, there is no copyright in facts, news, ideas or information. It is the way the fact has been expressed and the news has been presented that makes it be protected by copyright, because it involves skill and labour. 


There are numbers of cases, where a reporter CAN reproduce someone else’s work without permission and without and without infringing copyright.

1. Defence of Fair Dealing.

Coping facts or news stories from another newspaper can be seen as stealing, because of labour, skill and judgment involved into the research. A reporter can use the defence of fair dealing for reporting on current events, which will sometimes allow quoting from another newspaper.
Reporters can use facts and information from another article, as long as  they don’t use the picture used in the article, as they are excluded from fair dealing defence. The author of the article/ information has to be mentioned and has to be made available to the public.

If you write an article, or take a picture you own the copyright to the work you have done. If someone buys a copy of your work, they can look at it or read it, but they cannot make copies of it. They can sell the copy they bought to another person, but they cannot legally sell copies they make.



2.Private study or non commercial research, which is not very relevant to Journalists.

The key that makes work infringe copyright is publishing it. Researching and rewriting someone else’s work just for your own educational benefit is not a crime, as long as the work doesn’t become open to the public.

3. Criticism and reviews.

This is another exception where it is fair to have limited use of copyright in work that includes a photograph. The work must have already been available to the public before you a reporter can use this defence. This allows for reporting which quotes from books, plays, films, and broadcast when writing a criticism, story or a feature. The reporting has to be FAIR.

4. Incidental use

‘Use is incidental if copyright work is in the background or subordinate to the main focus of the work in which it is contained’. It is an exception when a reporter honestly had no idea that the work was a subject to copyright. This exception can be deliberate in any case, except in the case of music.

Who owns the Copyright?

The very first owner of a copyright work created after 31 July 1989 is the author. However, in the case of work done in the course of employment- the employer is the owner. 


The copyright lasts for the life time of the author plus the next 70 years. When it comes to music it is the same but after author's death there are 50 more years of protection.

REFERENCES:
McNae's - Essential Law For Journalists

BBC College of Journalism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/collegeofjournalism/law/copyright/)