Copyright information

The Copyright Act divides the materials protected by copyright law into two categories: ‘works’ and ‘other subject matter’.

Works

Examples include:

• Artistic works – paintings, graphics, cartoons, etchings, maps, diagrams, photographs, charts.
• Literary works – novels, text books, journals, poems, song lyrics, newspaper and magazine articles, anthologies, computer software.
• Musical works – song music, film score, melodies.
• Dramatic works – plays, mime, choreography.

Other subject matter

Examples include:

• Films – cinematographic films, video recordings, DVDs, television programs, MP4 files.
• Sound recordings – CDs, MP3 files, cassette tapes, vinyl recordings.
• Broadcasts – radio and television broadcasts.
• Published editions – typesetting (the format and look of a publication).

• Works – the owner of the copyright in works will generally be the author of the material such as the writer, artist or composer of the work.
• Other subject matter – the owner of copyright in sound recordings, films and broadcasts will usually be the maker of the material such as the producer of a film, the broadcaster of a broadcast and the record company that compiled that recording.

There are a number of exceptions to this general rule of copyright ownership. For example, copyright ownership may be varied by contract where the copyright owner agrees to assign their copyright to another party. Also, an employer will usually own copyright in works produced by the employee in the course of their employment.

Copyright law gives the copyright owner a number of exclusive rights to use the material. This includes the right to:

• copy/reproduce the material (photocopy, scan, upload/download or copy to a USB)
• publish the material (supply copies to the public)
• perform the material in public (perform a play or play a film/sound recording to the public)
• communicate the material (email or make it available online such as on the internet/intranet).

If you wish to do any of these things with material protected by copyright, you must obtain the permission of the copyright owner unless an exception applies.

Once the period of copyright protection in a work expires, the work is in the ‘public domain’. This means that anyone can copy the work without having first to obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The period of copyright protection varies depending on a number of factors including:

• the type of work
• if the author is known
• if and when the work was published.

Some people mistakenly believe that once a work is published or available for free from the internet, it is in the ‘public domain’. This is not true. Publicly available internet material, such as an online newspaper articles or images on Google or Flickr, are all protected by copyright.