Copyright

Copyright is an integral part of any form of artistic work, including music, literature and indeed film. It is needed to protect someone’s work from being used by other people and changed for profit of their own. The intent of copyright is to allow authors to have full control of their work, as well as any form of profit that their work establishes. Any work protected by copyright, should only be used or worked on with permission from the owner of the copyrighted product.

Forms of media that copyright can protect:-
- Literary works (novels, manuals, computer programs, song lyrics etc.)
- Dramatic works (including dance and mime)
- Musical works
- Artistic works (Paintings, Sculptures, Photographs, Logo's etc.)
- Layouts/ Arrangements (used to publish work like a book etc.)
- Recordings of work (sound, film etc.)
- Broadcasts of work


Copyright allows an author exclusive rights for a certain time period to their work, including any publication, distribution and adaptation of it. It applies to any medium, meaning a person could not reproduce any copyrighted material in any way shape or form without permission from the author. This includes anything from publishing a photo on the internet to making a sound recording of a scene in a book, and so on.

There is no need to apply for copyright in the UK, as when fixed in writing copyright automatically protects it. There is however a number of companies that provides unofficial copyright registers for work, although not all can be trusted and you would need to take hefty precautions in doing so. Copyright does not protect ideas for works so it is best getting any idea’s you have down on to paper, making sure to retain any documents or paperwork for future proof of it being your work. It also helps marking any of your work with a © symbol, with the name of the copyright owner and year in which the work was created to help clarify it although this is not necessary. Some copyrighted work can also have more than one copyright connected to it, for example on a music album, individual songs, artwork, recordings and so on can be individually copyrighted. Furthermore, whilst copyright can protect various elements (like the artwork of a logo), you could also register your work as a trade mark (like the logo itself).

Within TV and film, copyright exists in a number of its components (like the screenplay, soundtrack etc.) and if you were to produce a film or TV show, you would likely need to gain permission to use the works required to make the production. You would not likely infringe copyright in a broadcast if you were to make a recording from your own home to watch later, although if for any other use you would need permission from the rights holder (unless copyright exceptions apply).

The Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988 is the UK's current copyright act.

Creative Commons

The Creative Commons are an organization that specialise in increasing the amount of creativity in 'the commons'. 'The commons' is the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing. They use special tools that grant everyone standardized ways to copyright permissions to their creative work. By doing this the license easily allows people to change their copyright terms from the default of 'all rights reserved' to 'some rights reserved'.

Working alongside copyright they are basically a laid back approach to the strict terms that people usually follow, allowing for access to things you wouldn't normally be allowed to touch.

The following video explains the idea behind the creative commons in a more simple yet educated way...