Copyright is confusing to most creatives. To make things a little clearer, I have outlined the basics to do with copyright and how you can make sure your video content isn’t exploited:
1. A Quick History Lesson
Copyright makes up a branch of legal rights that are protected by Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), which is managed by the Intellectual Property Office. The law on copyright is upheld by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), which was passed in 1988.
2. Copyright In The UK
The United Kingdom is very pro-copyright. As such it’s actually an automatic right given to creatives in most artistic field. What this basically means is that you no longer have to register your work for it to be protected, it happens automatically.
3. What Control Does Copyright Give?
Copyright gives creators total control over their work. This can be anything from stopping people duplicating it to stopping anyone from broadcasting it in any form without permission
4. What Are Royalties?
Royalties are a form of income for creators. This income is organised through a license agreement made with the CDPA.
5. What Has Copyright?
Only work that is of a physical nature or in a material form can be copyrighted. You sadly cannot copyright an idea or creative thought, but you can copyright it when it has manifested itself into a physical form.
6. What Are The Conditions?
There are a few conditions for copyright. The work must be original i.e. it cannot be copied or plagiarised from somebody else. To classify as ‘original’ work, it must have had a considerable amount of skill, labour and thought put in to making it.
7. What Are The Exemptions?
Only literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works need to be classed as original work to be protected by copyright. Sound recordings, films and broadcasts do not need to be deemed as original in order to be protected by copyright. These works have a separate category of copyright protection.
8. How Do You Copyright Exemptions?
To copyright exemptions such as sound recordings, films and broadcasts its creators need to be British or the creation itself must have been first created/published in Britain. You can also include a credit line in your piece of work to provide evidence that the work is protected by copyright e.g. “2011, James Bryant, All Rights Reserved”.
Summary
There you have it, a quick guide to copyright that’ll help you to protect your work. By understanding these points you can ensure the content from your video production is safe and sound.
