Copyright
Copyright gives creators of original works (called “copyright works”), such as artwork, illustrations, pieces of writing and even software code, legal rights allowing the creator to stop reproduction of that work by others without the creator’s permission. Copyright does not need to be registered with any Government agency to exist, it exists automatically when an original copyright work is created and the first owner is automatically the creator of that work. The duration of copyright for most types of creative work is 70 years after the death of the original creator.
If copyright exists in a copyright work it is illegal for anyone to make copies of that copyright work without the creator’s permission. It is also illegal for anyone to issuing copies of that copyright work to the public or reproduce it on the Internet (or to broadcast that copyright work if it is music or film) without the permission of the creator, i.e. the original artist or designer.
One issue that is sometimes overlooked is where an artist or a designer is working for someone else when they create copyright works. This will affect ownership. If an artist or designer is employed by a company or other person, then when that artist or designer as an employee creates a new creative work, the copyright in that creative work is automatically owned by the artist or designer’s employer. However, the opposite is the case if the artist or designer is self-employed and working for clients on a freelance basis. In the latter situation, the artist or designer would automatically be the owner of the creative works he or she creates even where the client has instructed them to do it and paid the artist or designer to do the work. Because of this, it is a good idea for all artists/ designers to have a simple agreement for work they do for clients which covers the issue of IPR. This will normally be a Freelancer Agreement.
Whoever is the owner of copyright in creative works, they will be able to give permission to others to use their work commercially (this is called an IPR licence) in return for regular payments (licence fees or royalties) or if a company or person wants to buy copyright in certain creative works outright from the owner for a one off lump sum this can be done by way of an IPR assignment. Both are common in the art and design world. If copyright works are assigned, this will not change the duration of the copyright which will still last until the end of the seventieth year after the death of the original creator, regardless that the original creator no longer owns the copyright because it has been assigned to someone else.
It is worth remembering that copyright does not protect ideas, or such things asnames or subject titles. So, for example, a painting of a still life with a clever theme will not stop other artists staging still life on the same theme and producing paintings of them. The same goes for ideas for creative works; for example, if you write down a summary of an idea for a piece of creative work that you are planning to produce, copyright in that written work will only allow you to stop someone copying the written words, and will not allow you to stop them from producing the envisioned work summarised in writing.
Image by Slaven Gabric, Don’t walk !
