Copyright

Copyright is a legal property right protecting people or organisations that create original works of various types. It is copyright law that allows creators to own, control and benefit from the use of their work.

The right not to have their works copied, changed, adapted or distributed in any way without their permission is an economic right.

Copyright also notably includes moral rights, which protects creators by allowing them:

• The right to be identified as the creator of a work
• The right not to have works falsely attributed to them
• The right not to have their own works falsely attributed to someone else.

• Copyright is created automatically and does not need to be applied for
• Copyright is usually owned by the creator of a work - this may mean an author, editor, photographer, director, sculptor, illustrator, designer or various other roles
• Copyright usually exists for 70 years after the death of a creator
• Copyright cannot be revoked once granted, but it can be transferred or licensed to other parties if the copyright holder agrees

The main Copyright legislation referred to in this guide is the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.

Other 'intellectual property' rights include:

• Patents, which protect inventions
• Trade marks, which protect distinctive names and/or symbols for products and services
• Registered designs, which protect aesthetic features of a product

Copyright legislation does not give a single definition of what constitutes a 'work', but protects original expressions of ideas that are fixed in a tangible form. The following will always be copyrighted:

• Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (including performances)
• Sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes
• Computer programmes, databases and websites
• Typographical arrangements of any edition of a work
   

Remember: Ideas or facts themselves cannot be protected by copyright! They must be "fixed" in some tangible form for copyright to apply.

There are many ways of "fixing", including:

• Writing down
• Filming
• Making a sound recording
• Printing
• Painting
• Performing
• Broadcasting
• Posting on the web
• Entering on a database