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Copyright:
Ownership and Protection
Contributor:
Mike de Sousa, Director, AbleStable®, with
reference to The Berne Convention
Creative
professionals make their living from the efforts
of their originality. The Internet has created an
environment that makes it very easy to copy or plagiarise
another persons work. We investigate the world of
copyright ownership and how creative people can
try to protect the fruit of their creative labours.
Please note, this article has been written to provide
an overview of copyright issues and in no way presumes
to act as either an authority, or as a comprehensive
reference, on copyright issues.
Copyright:
a definition
The term copyright can stand for a variety of principled
and legal positions on the use or protection of
original literary, musical, or artistic work. Copyright
is often granted by law for a specified period of
years (the Berne Convention states the terms of
protection covers the life of the author plus seventy-five
years).
The
big ©
The copyright symbol © is the usual short hand
method of asserting your copyright over original
works. The copyright symbol is mostly used together
with the owner’s name and year of creation
(eg: AbleStable © 2002-2010). The text-only
form can be expressed as: ablestable copyright
2002-2010.
Although it is no longer necessary for countries
associating themselves with the Berne Convention
to place a copyright notice on the original, or
on each copy of an original work to claim protection,
we advise you do. It takes little time and makes
public your assertion of your primary copyright
rights.
The
Berne Convention
The Berne Convention is an international copyright
treaty signed by ninety six countries, and requires
member states of the 'Union' (the signitories) to
recognise the rights of creative people. Those countries
signing up to the Berne Convention must ensure their
own legal system protects those producing original
creative work, and grants exclusive right to translate,
reproduce, perform, or adapt protected works.
Like most attempts at creating principles that will
be followed by international signatories, The Berne
Convention is not always strictly adhered to. If
you wish to be wholly informed about how your own
country applies The Berne Convention you are best
advised to carry out a local search for 'copyright
law'. View The Berne Convention as a starting point,
not as a cast iron protective mechanism.
Your
automatic protection
Unless you create a work for the sole purpose of
selling it to a client as a work for hire, ownership
of the copyright is usually conferred on the work’s
creator. If work is a collaborative effort this
is expressed as joint authorship in copyright law,
and each of the collaborators automatically receives
an even share of the copyright’s ownership
interest.
Creative professionals should always be explicit
with their clients from the start as to who will
own the copyright of works produced for them. Creative
professionals should be as clear as possible about
any conditions or non-exclusive rights surrounding
the copyright agreement.
What
copyright protects
Copyright extends to a great many creative areas.
All the Disciplines we list on our Directory Index
can be the focus of copyright agreements. What follows
is by no means an exhaustive list but a general
guide to the kinds of areas that afford copyright
protection:
• Literary work:
ad copy; computer programs; cookbooks; catalogues;
fiction; non-fiction; poetry; prose; software code;
textbooks
• Performing Arts:
audio-visual works; dramatic works; choreography;
film (motion pictures); multimedia; musical compositions;
scripts
• Sound Recording:
published and unpublished recordings of musical,
dramatic, or literary works
• Serials (literary
works published in a series of instalments): bulletins;
journals; digests; magazines; newspapers
• Visual Arts:
architectural works; cartoons; drawings; graphic
designs; illustration; paintings; maps; photographs;
sculpture; technical drawings; unique package designs
What
copyright does not protect
Do not lull yourself into a false sense of security
in thinking every creative action you take is automatically
protected by the monolith of copyright laws that
currently exist. What follows are the two most important
exemptions to copyright law:
• Copyright law does not protect the
ideas and concepts surrounding a work, it only protects
the expression of those ideas (not the procedure,
process, method, system, discovery, name, slogan
or title of creative works)
• Work which is
based on work in the public domain is only protected
to the extent of the parts of the work which are
original
The
copyright owner's legal rights
Copyright laws give the owner a number of important
legal rights concerning their original work. Under
most copyright laws, the copyright owner has the
exclusive right to do, or authorise others to do
any of the following:
• copy the work
in the same or a different medium
• prepare 'derivative'
works based on the work
• distribute copies
of the work by sale, rental, lease or lending
• display the
work publicly
• transmit the
work electronically (including the Internet)
Copyright: original objects
and copied objects
When an original work is sold it does not include
the sale of the author’s exclusive copyright
rights to make and distribute copies of the original
work. The owner of a copy of an original work has
the right to display the work, including selling
it to another party, however, in law the sale of
the copyrighted material in the work is often only
permitted in a written transfer agreement signed
by the owner.
At AbleStable® we have a non-exclusive
copyright agreement which all creative professionals
on our directory have signed up to. The non-exclusive
copyright arrangement allows us to show their work
while ensuring their ownership of copyright is
maintained:
I
have the authority to permit work to
be presented at AbleStable®, and
grant full permission to present my
work (and any other work I represent
as a Member) for the purposes of the
directory of creative professionals
known as 'AbleStable®'.
Any trademark depicted in Member's on-line
work for the purpose of representing
a Member's creative services, is the
property of the trademark owner, who
retains the rights to said trademark.
Presented items may also be subject
to copyright or other protection. Accordingly,
the presentation at AbleStable®
of any item does not constitute a license
or permission to use such item. Downloading,
copying, transmitting or any other use
of the displayed item is prohibited. |
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Work for hire
Works for hire are defined differently depending on
the country's legislative wording. An example of how
'work for hire' is defined follows:
• work prepared
by an employee within the scope of his or her employment,
or
• a specially ordered
or commissioned work created for use as a contribution
to a collective work, as part of a motion picture
or other audio-visual work, as a translation or a
supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional
text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or
as an atlas, and the parties have signed a written
'work for hire' agreement
Creative professionals working for a company or in
a contractual role should look carefully at their
employment conditions concerning copyright issues.
It is often the case that companies assume copyright
rights over their employees. When creative professionals
undertake freelance work on behalf of a larger company
they should also take time to find out what the copyright
arrangements are as there may be restrictions on their
ownership of copyright, and the way they can present
and copy their contracted work.
Protection and the Internet
There are practical preparations you can take to help
ensure your copyright is protected on the Internet,
however, the illegal copying and plagiarism of work
is a fact of life on the Internet. The simplest and
easiest method of protecting your work is not to show
it publicly, an absurd position if your purpose is
for your work to be seen by others.
There are various methods that can be used to make
it more difficult to cut and paste images and text
from Internet browsers, ranging from encrypting the
web page to 'watermarking' original work. In the last
analysis however, if someone wishes to copy work there
is a relatively simple workaround to any method of
protection.
Our advise is to present selected works on the Internet,
perhaps with your trademark, name, and copyright notice
clearly marked on any work. It is then very clear
to potential offenders that you do not wish your work
to be copied without permission.
Conclusion
Copyright is at once a simple and complex issue. Simple
in so far as original works are generally accepted
as automatically copyright protected and therefore
the creator of an original work need do nothing for
their work to be copyrighted, complex as, copyright
protection and enforcement is a legal minefield and
can be costly businesses to carry through.
The one essential principle to remember when presenting,
publishing, or selling original work is to ensure
the viewer and/or client is always very clear about
the assertion of copyright (that an original work
is said to originate from someone or some group).
A creative professional's main focus concerning copyright
should be to make explicit in plain and simple language
who owns copyright by describing the full implications
of their copyright ownership statement.
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| Authors
background |
Mike
de Sousa is the Director of AbleStable®.
Mike has been commissioned as an artist, music
composer, photographer, print and web site designer,
and author.
If you observe inaccuracies in our in-house
contributions or wish to contribute an article
or review to be included at AbleStable®
visit Feedback.
Copyright
Notice
Although our contents are free to browse, copyright
resides with the originators of all works accessed
at AbleStable®, and unauthorised copying
or publication of our site contents is strictly
prohibited.
AbleStable © 2002-2010 |
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Material: AbleStable © 2002-2010 |
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