Copyright Law of The United Kingdom - Authors and Ownership of Copyright

Authors and Ownership of Copyright

Under the 1988 Act, the first owner of a copyright is presumed to be the author of the work. If a work is made by an author in the course of employment then the author's employer is the first owner of copyright.

The duration of copyright can depend upon the nature of the work and whether or not the copyright holder is a real person; in general terms, the length of the copyright period for copyright created and retained by a real person is determined from the date of of his/her death and in other cases (commonly a company/business) from the date of creation but this can be affected by various other factors some of which are dealt with below.

The author of a work is:

• The creator of a literary, musical, dramatic or artistic work.
• The publisher of a published edition of a work.
• The producer of a sound recording.
• The producer and principal director of a film.
• The maker of a broadcast.
• If a work is computer generated, the person who made the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work.

Work created in the course of employment is (again with exceptions) treated as the work of the employer. There is a distinction to be drawn between work created during employment which is not connected to that employment and work created in the course of employment (which is still connected with the employment even if e.g. it has been created at home and/or outwith working hours).

If more than one person qualifies as an author then a work is one of joint authorship. In that case the permission of all copyright holders is required for acts that would otherwise be an infringement of copyright. It is quite possible for more than one copyright to subsist within a work. For example, if a CD of songs is produced then the following copyrights at the very least must be taken into account:

• Copyright of the sound recording.
• Copyright of the sheet music being played on the sound recording.
• Copyright of any lyrics.
• Copyright of any cover artwork.
• Copyright of the text of the insert.
• Copyright of the typographical arrangement of the insert.

However, it should be noted that photographs, portraits and engravings which were commissioned and paid for prior to the 1988 Act coming into force have different rules governing the first ownership of copyright. In general, the copyright owners of such works is the person who commissioned and paid for them.

Under UK copyright law, an author may assign his copyright rights to another person. It is standard practice for such assignments to be made in book publishing contracts, for example. Under the 1911 Act, such assignments revert to the author's estate 25 years after the death of the author; but that only applies to works made before 1 June 1957.