Knowing the Facts about Copyright

Copyright is… If you consider my crude cottage analogy again; it essentially establishes what copyright is… a property right. But a property right that applies, not to land or buildings or vehicles, but to products of the human mind… of our intellect. Creative products, such as literary, dramatic, musical or artistic or filmic work (don?t worry, I?ll go into greater detail of work to which copyright applies later). And what can one do with this “intellectual property” right? Well, copyright has some similar but also different entitlements to other forms of property right, specifically allowing the copyright owner (or owners) to:

* copy, lend and distribute their work

* license others (i.e. grant written permission) to use the copyright owner?s work
* adapt their work or licence others to do so (e.g. adapt a book into a movie)
* sell their created work – their intellectual property – to others, and, importantly…
* have powers to stop wrongful infringement of those rights by third parties, i.e. the copying and exploitation of the copyright owner?s work without their permission, as well as…
* obtain recompense in the form of compensation or damages for infringement where loss of revenue has been discovered.

This applies to a copyright owner?s work, whether or not it?s been published, exhibited or otherwise released to the public for their consumption. Not only this though…

Moral Rights in copyright

A creator and commissioner of a copyrighted work is also entitled under copyright to other rights relating to their work. Called “Moral Rights”, these are:

* the right to be identified as the author (or artist, or photographer, or composer, or director etc.), and to stop a work being falsely attributed to them

* the right not to have their work subjected to derogatory treatment (alteration, re-arrangement or deletion) by others; “derogatory treatment” being where the resulting work is mutilated, distorted, and can damage the creator/author?s reputation
* the right to privacy when it comes to certain photographs and films (e.g. a commissioner of private photos has the right not to have them published or exhibited to the public where the photos become copyright works)

Here?s some examples of these above three points:

If you flick open the front few pages of any book, you?ll see that the author has asserted their moral right to be identified as the author of that book; a right they have under law to do so(7). Were it a fictional book, and it was adapted into a movie, they?d also have the right to be identified in the movie as the author of the source novel – unless you set aside the right. Conversely, Alan Moore, whose now legendary unhappiness at the treatment of adaptations of his graphic novels and how he feels they?ve reflected badly on his original work, has prompted him to demand his name be removed from the movies? credits, such as Watchmen.

If for some reason, J K Rowling?s Harry Potter series of books had been knowingly and deliberately credited as my work and not hers by someone else, both she and I could stop it, due to false attribution.(8)

If during the editing of this book, I?d felt a third party (an editor, a publisher or printer) had done a hatchet job on all my hard work, I could not only let it be known how unhappy I was with this mistreatment, but I?d have the right to stop it too.(9)

Finally, the photo-portraits of my significant other and I which we paid a professional photographer for, hang on the walls where we live… and nowhere else without our say-so.(10)

See how Moral Rights work?

Now I need to mention there are however exceptions to Moral Rights; they can?t be asserted when copyrighted works are computer programs or computer-generated work (created without human intervention), or for a typeface design. Also, if the creator/author hasn?t asserted their right to be identified as the creator/author if that right applies, the Moral Right hasn?t been violated. In addition, if the creator/author works for an employer who does/will own the copyright of the work you produce, you will not have this right either.

5 - Irish Patents Office: http://www.patentsoffice.ie. Copyright - a brief history: http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/student_copyright.aspx
6 - Copyright - a brief history: http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/student_copyright.aspx5
7 - The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, Chapter IV Moral Rights, sections 77-79.
8 - The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, Chapter IV Moral Rights, section 84
9 - The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, Chapter IV Moral Rights, sections 80-81
10 - The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, Chapter IV Moral Rights, section 85