Copyright laws in the UK are designed to protect the intellectual property rights of creators, ensuring that their original works are legally safe from unauthorised use. Many different forms of art – like literary, dramatic, musical or other mediums – come under copyright from the point of their creation.
It’s a fairly complicated world, so it’s always best to do your own research – but this article will cover most of the basics to be aware of. We’ll cover the main UK copyright laws, rules on ownership and infringement, as well as fair use clauses.
Copyright laws in the UK
Copyright protects original work from being copied, performed or shown by other people without the express permission of the creator. Although copyright typically depends on the date the work was created, there are many different lengths of copyright:
- The copyright of written, dramatic, musical or artistic work usually lasts for 70 years after the author’s death
- The copyright of sounds or music recordings typically lasts for 70 years from the date it was first published
- Copyright for films lasts for 70 years after the death of the director, screenplay author and composer
- The copyright of broadcasts typically lasts for 50 years after the date of its first release
- Layouts of published editions of written, dramatic or musical works usually retain their copyright for 25 years from the date of their first publication
When a work is created, it automatically comes under copyright laws. Although some copyright owners prefer to use the copyright symbol © along with their name and the date to clearly identify a work as theirs, there is no legal need to do this.
Ownership, exceptions and infringement
If you are the owner of a copyrighted work, you can licence the material. This way, you will set a contractual agreement pertaining to the usage of your material, and decide how others can use your work.
Copyright infringement is when someone uses the whole, or even part of a copyrighted work without permission. When recognising copyright infringement, it’s best to act as early as possible – whether that be by trying to contact them directly, finding some mediation or going to court. The courts have powers to decide if the copyright infringement is a criminal offence, and can grant an injunction, award the copyright owner damages or force the infringer to transfer any profits from their use to the copyright owner.
There are certain exceptions to copyright, for example if you are using sections of a work for a non-commercial use such as privately studying for a legitimate academic reason. You may also be able to use copyrighted material for non-commercial research, like data or text mining.
Fair dealing and use
The copyright holder is responsible for defending their work against infringement. Copyright is put in place to stop people from copying a section of – or even the whole work – and issuing these copies publicly.
However, as part of the exceptions to copyright, fair dealing is given to use of a work for criticism, review and reporting of current events. This would include taking quoted parts of an interview, parody and caricature inspired by a certain work or topic, or using clips of footage in breaking news stories.
Expiry and public domain
Once copyright has expired, the work is free to be used by anyone, for any purpose. As copyright can differ for words and text (for example, a picture book’s text may become part of the public domain at a different time to its images), it’s always best to be on the safe side and overestimate the dates of which it can be used, to avoid any confusion.
Certain international agreements can also expand copyright across other countries. Depending on the type of work, copyright can last up to 50 years for written, dramatic and artistic works, and at least 25 years for photographs – so again, be careful!
Copyright for the conscientious writer
Especially when work is created for commercial use – but really in any case – it’s important to keep records. Who created the work, any contracts and even the date of creation can be important to know.
If you are writing for any reason in public view – for example, entering your work in competitions or for magazines and journals, make sure you are aware of how copyright can affect you in order to understand what to do in the off-chance someone plagiarises.
That’s right!
This was a delve into the depths of copyright in the UK, where we covered the length of copyright, how to protect it and what kinds of work can be covered by it. I’m going to take a nap now…
Impish Fen 
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