The Copyright Law

The Copyright Law Copyright is the "exclusive right given by law for term of years to

author, designer etc., or his assignee to print, publish or sell

copies of his original work"

Copyright is a law that protects published and unpublished work that

you can see, hear and touch, from being reproduced without prior

consent from the creator of the work. Copyright law and copyright

originated in the United Kingdom from a concept of common law, the

statute of Anne 1709. It became statutory with the passing of the

copyright act 1911. The current act is the copyright, designs and

patents act 1988.

Until 1996, under UK law copyright ended fifty years after the creator

of the work died or, if it was published after their death, fifty

years after the work was first lawfully published. However, UK law was

superseded by a Directive of the European Union from 1 January 1996.

That harmonized the copyright laws in the member states of the Union

and extended the period of copyright to seventy years for all member

states of the European Union including the UK. So in the UK and

throughout the European Union copyright now lasts for seventy years.

In fact, it is slightly longer than that as copyright ends on 1

January after the seventieth anniversary.

Copyright begins when any of the work is actually created, even if you

have not registered it. It is your right, as the creator of work, to

put the copyright symbol next to your name, except when you have

stolen work from someone else and are attempting to pass it off as

your own. The individual normally ow...

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data. The first is that private copies will be made for personal use

but that the fair deal will be ignored. Although, this is not in

violation of copyright laws, as long as it does not affect the value

of the work.

The second issue is probably the most serious cause for concern. This

is that someone might try to profit from reselling articles. This is

not so much a threat for scholarly journal articles, but is definitely

a problem when people take movies, songs and books from the internet.

The third issue is the free distribution of copyright material. In

most cases, it is an unintentional act, which does not result in the

loss of any money to the creator of the original works. If, however,

it is found to be a deliberate act, to make profit from someone else's

work then the courts will act on it.