Andrew Charlesworth Director, Centre for IT & Law Copyright 101 for web designers and developers Senate House, University of Bristol 22 June 2007

2 Intellectual Property Law Intellectual property rights (IPRs) allow individuals to claim and exercise rights in their creative and innovative works Some IPRs are well known –copyright, patent, designs, and trademark Others are known primarily to specialists –trade secrets, geographical indications, semiconductor chip topography rights, plant varieties and performers rights. A work may be protected by several IPRs. Today, we will be considering copyright.

3 What this session is, and is not. It is a quick and dirty guide to © and web design/development - not a comprehensive guide to all aspects of © - Im leaving a lot out. – (25 pages) It is mainly about the use and licensing in of © works - not about the creation and licensing out of such works (but Ill take questions on the latter) It is aiming to provide some initial guidance and to kill some prevalent myths, but its not a substitute for seeking appropriate advice. –

4 Copyright and the Internet IPRs are often not the same from country to country There are international agreements e.g. Berne Convention on ©, but they allow broad variations. –US © law explicitly allows listeners to make digital copies of lawfully owned music for their personal use, UK © law does not.* When designing webpages, remember your pages may be visible worldwide. Note: The 51 st State mistake Note: The Internet is neither your living room or a classroom

5 Copyright in the UK UK primary legislation - Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1998) as amended. – (324 pages) Works covered include: literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films, published editions Copyright has been expanded (often controversially) to cover new types of works –Computer programs – UK Copyright (Computer Programs) Regulations 1992 –Databases – UK Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997

6 Copyright in the UK 2 UK copyright law –protects expressions of ideas not ideas –requires that the work be original and created in a permanent form –does not require formal registration Duration of © protection varies –Literary works (inc. software) = authors life + 70 years; –Sound recordings/broadcasts = 50 years from end of year created or 50 years from end of year first released. –Databases = 15 years, but may be renewed if substantial change to database

7 Copyright in the UK 3 Ownership –the original owner of © in a given work is usually the person who created it. BUT there are exceptions e.g. –© in works created in the course of employment - the employer (issue of what is in the course of) –© in a sound recording or film - the person who made the arrangements for its creation –© in a computer-generated literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work - the person who made the arrangements for its creation.

8 Copyright in the UK 4 Several copyrights may subsist simultaneously in a single item –A song - the words may be © as a literary work, the music may be © as a musical work, sheet music may be © as a typographical arrangement. –These ©s might be held by different people, and might have different commencement and expiry dates. Webpages are often comprised of numerous works – literary works, artistic works, video, sound recordings etc. Note: Youre a publisher, with all that entails.

9 Copyright in the UK 5 A rightsholder has the exclusive right to do certain things with their work - making a copy, public performance, broadcasting - bundle of rights. –These rights can be assigned, licensed, inherited etc. as a bundle, or as individual rights. © infringement occurs when you copy a work (or a substantial part of a work) without authority of the © holder (unless legally permitted – fair dealing). Licensing of © is common – the rightsholder grants permission to others to do certain things with the work, but retains overall control of it – lawful use of work is conditional on obeying the licence terms.

10 Permitted Acts There are things that you can do with a © work without the rightholders permission, e.g. –Fair dealing – such as purposes of research, private study, criticism and review. –Certain uses in education –Certain uses by librarians or archivists These exceptions are very tightly constructed and construed, and most are not going to be applicable to publishing on the Internet. Note: Fair dealing is probably the most misunderstood and misused term in ©

11 Simple Copyright Myths Using other peoples work without permission: –It didnt have a © Joe Bloggs, 2006 on it so its not copyrighted. –Its on the internet, that means theres no copyright in it and I can use it for anything. –Its only a short piece of music, there cant be a copyright in that. –Its from an out-of-print book – its in the public domain –I asked for permission and didnt get a response, so its OK –If theres a problem, Ill be able to get permission later.

12 Advanced Copyright Myths Using other peoples work without permission: –Its work for a local charity, and Im not charging for it, so its OK. –Its work for the University so if I put for educational purposes only on it, its OK. –My sisters husband says his mate at the pub reckons any © materials can be used if I credit the author - its something called fair dealing. –OK, I used the work, but I altered it a bit so its a new work. –It's okay to use anything as long as I take it down if the rightsholder objects.

13 Use of Web-based materials It is not currently a breach of UK © to: –make an incidental (cache) copy of a webpage while accessing it (fair dealing) –link to anothers public webpage without permission, (despite some website assertions to the contrary) but thought needs to be given to: Deep linking to some publicly accessible pages (politeness) Deep linking to private protected pages (licence) –link to.pdf files on public webpages –provide a link to a page that contains infringing works (but probably unwise) –download/print a webpage for personal study.

14 Use of Web materials 2 It may be a breach of UK © to: –link to image files so as to make them appear on your webpage –frame webpages in such a way as to make them appear part of your website –to use anothers © text as a hyperlink – headlines. It is a breach of UK © to: –Cut and paste material from anothers website to put it on your own (unless the fair dealing defence applies or the use is insubstantial); –Copy, print or download part or all of webpage for non- fair dealing purposes unless permission is granted.

15 The Creative Commons Creative Commons Licences are © licences. –work can only be CC licensed by rightsholder –cant be used to prevent © exceptions - fair dealing –cant be used to protect things not protected by © - ideas Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. Works under a Creative Commons licence must be used by licencees in accordance with its terms. Key CC terms: –Attribution, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives and ShareAlike CC licences can vary considerably in scope.

16 Assignment and licensing in If you wish to use a work in which the copyright is owned by a third party, you can seek: –an assignment of the rights in the work –an ad hoc licence between yourself and owners of copyright works –a licence to use particular works on a case-by-case basis from a collective licensing agency –a blanket licence enabling access to a range of works under a fixed set of terms –access under a Creative Commons licence

17 Enforcement of Copyright The primary remedies under UK law are civil remedies e.g. injunctions and damages –Many infringements are inadvertent – infringer is unaware of © in a work, or ignorant of © generally - they are still potentially liable –The burden of proof in a civil case is lower than a criminal case - balance of probability –If a case goes to court legal action tends to be both lengthy and costly (and poor PR) Note: 1 st rule of litigation - dont sue poor people. –Exception: unless the client wants to prove a point Note: Universities arent perceived as poor.

18 Final thoughts Just because a work available on the internet is shown as public domain or CC-licensed, doesnt mean it is – its a common sense call. Some rightholders are willing to actively seek out possible Internet-based infringers… – …others are building automated tools for them: – A basic understanding of © law, and a certain amount of record keeping can go a long way to preventing that nasty TLA - the CLM.