COPYRIGHT PROJECT
Beginners guide to copyright:
What is copyright?
Copyright is the owners right to prohibit the copying or infringement of their original piece of work. This law protects your work from people who may try to distribute, violate or claim this work as their own. Copyright is an essential way for authors to be in control of where their material goes, and how it is used.
The current UK law, known as the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, allows the original creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works to have full control over the following:
- Copying the work.
- Performing, broadcasting or playing the work to the public.
- Renting and/or lending copies to the public.
- Issuing copies to the public.
- Creating an adaption from the original work.
Among the five main infringements above, there are also some secondary infringements:
- Importing, possessing or dealing with an infringing copy.
- Being responsible for creating infringing copies.
- Granting the use of premises for an infringing performance.
- Providing the equipment for an infringing performance.
What is copyrightable?
Anything that is brought into the physical form gets copyright protection, such as:
- Original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic creations.
- Logo's
- Sound recordings, TV programs and film.
- Typographical arrangement of printed text (this covers the style, composition, layout and overall presentation of any published editions, like books, newspapers and magazines).
- The arrangement or orchestration of musical work.
At what stage is something copyrightable?
In the UK, you automatically get copyright protection as soon as any original idea is created into existence, this enables your work to be fully copyrightable, even if it is simply a concept or spark of inspiration written on a scrap of paper or napkin. This is where the UK copyright law differs from other countries such as America, where your work must be registered in order to pass for valid protection.
How does someone go about protecting their copyright?
For starters, you can write the word "Copyright" and add the symbol 'C', then the date of creation and your name and/or signature at the bottom of every page of your work. For instance; the lyric and/or chord sheet, a piece of writing such as poetry or a story, photography, and basically any tangible evidence of the original work to confirm that it is yours. Proceed to send it to yourself via Special Delivery, keep it somewhere safe and leave it unopened, this proves that the letter has not been tampered with. This method will aid you in verifying that the work was in your possession at that specific time for any legal business, but contrary to popular belief it does not give the judge foolproof evidence that you are the original author of the work.
Alongside this, you can also:
- Entrust a dated copy to a Lawyer
- Leave a dated copy of your work at the bank so it can be placed securely within a safety deposit box.
- Register your work to the UK Copyright Service (https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/register/)
Within the case of literary, dramatic and artistic works, the author is usually the first owner of any copyright, (unless the original author decides to sell or transfer the copyright to a new owner). In some cases (the US) if a piece of work is created by an employee of a company, their work can be considered as a 'work for hire', and so the copyright is given to the employer who is automatically regarded as the "author" of the work in copyright cases.
Example question; if I were to create a song in Chichester College, who would be the copyright owner?
If you are in a partnership with someone or a number of people, you must write up a contract together with a solicitor that you all have wholly agreed upon. This minimises issues regarding the copyright, how the money is shared out and any other possible problematic circumstances that could occur in the future.
What are the two types of Copyright in music?
MUSICAL COMPOSITION: This is the musical composition piece that consists of the music as written and the lyrics (if there are any). The musical composition can be in the structure of a notated copy (for instance, a sheet of music), or it can be a sound recording, such as a Master recording or phonorecord. The author of the musical composition is usually the composer and the lyricist.
Phonorecord - the material object that incorporates sounds, like cassette tapes, CD's, albums and Vinyl records (LD).
SOUND RECORDING: This is the outcome from a fixation of a series of musical, spoken (voiced words) or other sounds embodied into a tangible object that that plays the sounds back to you. Generally, a Sound Recording is quite literally just the recording of a performance. The author is normally the performer(s) themselves and the producer/engineer who processed the recorded sounds and then fixed them into the final product.
What rights does Copyright give you?
(So many)
ECONOMIC RIGHTS:
- Copying - To copy your work (in any way) - For example; by photocopying, scanning, recording, and reproducing in a different format.
- Distribution - This means issuing copies of your work to the public. for instance a CD being sold to a record shop. However, this does not prevent the resale of that copy, for example a second hand shop.
- Renting and Lending - Renting and lending your copies to the public, such as a video store, however the library is except from this rule as library loans are always permitted under the Public Lending Right Scheme 1982.
- Public Performance - This allows you to display and perform your work to the public, such as playing your sound recordings, showing your films to the public etc
- Communication to the public - Broadcasting your work to the public on the TV, or on the internet.
- Adaption - You can adapt and alter your work in anyway that you like. For for instance, when a novel is turned into a film (The Harry Potter novels), or when transcribing a musical work.
MORAL RIGHTS:
There are four moral rights in the UK. These rights are only applicable for literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, and film.
Somebody's creation usually means a lot more to that person that just the money or the economic values that it may possess, it can be more about the time and effort that that person has put into their art, and the emotional significance it holds behind it. Moral rights protect the none-economic values.
- The Attribution right - This is the right to be recognised as the author of your work, it is necessary to assert it on the work itself before it applies to confirm that you want to take advantage of this right. "The artist" hereby asserts his/her right to be identified as the author of (name of work).
- The Derogatory right - The right to object to derogatory treatment in any way, this right covers any deletion, alteration to or adaption of you work, which can be considered as a misuse and distortion to the work and to the authors reputation.
- The False Attribution right - The right to object to false attribution - which means to not take credit for a piece of work you did not create and/or have no association with. This prevents people taking the acknowledgement for something they did not make.
- The Privacy right - This right covers your private photographs, videos, music or anything else you want to keep confidential from the public. (Not that it's doing so well...)
Pastiche and Parody:
On October 1st 2014, two new exceptions were introduced:
Pastiche is an exception which allows someone to imitate another person's artistic work. This means you can create your own piece of visual art, music, theatre, or literature resembling and/or in a respectful tribute to another's original work without commentary or critique.
For example this cover by Haley Reinhart from PostModernJukebox of Oops...I did it again!
Reinhart's Version
Which, originally is Britney Spears song:
Britney Spears Version
Of course, they are very different, but it is simply inspired and imitated away from the original. Family Guy for instance, also imitates celebrities.
Parody is an imitation of the original style or character of a writer or artist to make fun of or critique. This exception allows something to be mimicked in order to comment on it. This can lead to a piece that is deliberately exaggerated for humour or criticism, and can also be used in order to create a discussion on the topic/person/style.
Lady Gaga - "Applause" PARODY
Lady Gaga - Applause (ORIGINAL)
Examples of infringed copyright:
Vanilla Ice VS Queen & Bowie in "Ice Ice Baby" 1990 which sold five platinum records years after Queen and Bowie's "Under Pressure" 1981, which has been one of the most famous Copyright Cases. To put it simply, Vanilla Ice chose to use a classic hook without permission, and ended up having to pay an 'undisclosed sum' along with some public scorn. Originally Vanilla had insisted that the two melodies were recognizably different because he had added a beat between the notes, which a later confessed to be a joke.
"Ice's weak defense makes this one of the most hilarious copyright cases of all time" - RollingStone
George Harrison VS The Chiffons in "My Sweet Lord" 1970 which sounded painfully similar to The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" 1963, both songs of which were extremely popular when released. He was found guilty for "subconscious plagiarism". Harrison did admit to having obviously heard the song beforehand, but also stated that the inspiration did not come from there when he began singing the "hallelujah" over a two-chord progression, but instead by the Edwin Hawins version of 'Oh Happy Day'. "I wasn't consciously aware of the similarity when I wrote the song". - George Harrison
References!
