Copyright Law

The UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

This law gives the creators of;

-Dramatic (plays and dance)

-Literary (song lyrics, manuscripts, manuals, computer programs, leaflets etc)

-Musical (recordings and score)

-Artistic works (photography, painting, sculptures, architecture, technical drawings/diagrams, maps, logos)

-Broadcasts

-Sound recordings(may be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical and literary.)

-Films (broadcasts and cable programmes.)

Typographical (printing)arrangement of published editions (magazines, periodicals, etc)

-Video Games [newly established]

... rights to control the ways in which their material may be used. These rights cover; broadcast and public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public

Copyright Occurs;

It is an offence to perform any of the following acts without the consent of the owner:

Copy the work.

Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.

Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.

Adapt the work.

The author of a work, or a director of a film may also have certain moral rights:

The right to be identified as the author.

Right to object to derogatory treatment.

Although there are special exceptions when the copyright law is concerned;

Fair dealing is a term used to describe acts which are permitted to a certain degree without infringing the work, these acts are:

• Private and research study purposes.
• Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes.
• Criticism and news reporting.
• Incidental inclusion.
• Copies and lending by librarians.
• Acts for the purposes of royal commissions, statutory enquiries, judicial proceedings and parliamentary purposes.
• Recording of broadcasts for the purposes of listening to or viewing at a more convenient time, this is known as time shifting.
• Producing a back up copy for personal use of a computer program.
• Playing sound recording for a non profit making organisation, club or society.
  (Profit making organisations and individuals should obtain a license from PRS for Music.)
  
  
  
  We decided to research into the copyright, designs and patents act because we wanted to know exactly what copyright meant so that we didn't do anything to disrupt the law. Also we thought that it would be a good piece of knowledge to know for when we were constructing our products and for the future, if we choose to make anything else like this because it guides us through what is essential to know and what isn't so important. We have also recently looked for some music for our trailer so we wanted to make sure that we were making the right decision when finalising the music choice.