Copyright
law
The
Copyright,
Designs
and
Patents Act 1998
Copyright is the exclusive right of
owners to control the copying and exploitation of their works by others. Copyright law in the UK is governed by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). The
CDPA
has
been
amended/supplemented several times to take account of EC
Harmonisation Directives on:
- Computer programs.
- Copyright duration.
- Rental rights.
- Databases.
- Copyright and related rights in the
information society.
- Artists' resale right.
Further changes are expected as a
result of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property 2006 and recent
advances in digitisation and the Internet, for example, a limited
private exception for format shifting. In
addition, the European Commission has proposed an extension in the
copyright term for sound recordings and performers from 50 to 95 years,
with the introduction of a new claim for session musicians of 20% of
record labels' offline and sales revenue.
Works
not
idea
Copyright protects the form in which
are expressed not the ideas themselves - Baigent v. Random House (The Da Vinci
Code), Nova Productions v. Mazooma Games (2007).
Section 1 of the CDPA therefore declares that copyright
subsists in the following types of works:
- Original literary, dramatic, and musical
works.
- Artistic works.
- Sound recordings, films and broadcasts.
- Typographical arrangements of published
editions.
Certain things may be too
insubstantial or intransient to constitute works. Copyright
could
not
be
claimed in the word EXXON despite the substantial
resources invested in inventing it – Exxon
(1982). Live performances are protected by
rights in performances and not by copyright.
Infringement
of
UK
copyright
Copyright is infringed by:
- Making copies of the work.
- Issuing copies
of the work to the public.
- Renting or
lending the work to the public.
- Performing,
showing or playing the work in public.
- Communicating
the work to the public.
- Adapting the
work or doing any of the above in relation to an adaptation.
- Authorising any
of the above acts.
Civil and criminal liability may be
imposed on those who knowingly deal with infringing copies of a
copyright work in the course of trade.
For a defendant's work to be
infringing – Designers Guild v.
Williams (2001):
(a)
it must be derived from the claimant's work.
Provided the claimant establishes sufficient similarity in
the features allegedly copied by the defendant from the claimant's work
and that the defendant had access to the claimant's work, the burden
shifts to the defendant to show that the similarities are not the
result of copying;
(b)
the defendant must take the whole or a substantial part of
the claimant's work. Substantiality is
measured in terms of quality not quantity. It
is
a
matter
of impression and depends on the importance of what is
taken to the claimant's and not to the defendant's work.
An action for infringement of copyright
can be brought by the copyright owner or an exclusive licensee.
Remedies include interim and final injunctions, damages or an account
of profits and delivery up and destruction of infringing items.
Additional damages may be awarded in cases of flagrant infringement.
