The purpose of copyright is to protect and reward creators for the works they have produced. Copyright consists of economic rights - the right of reproduction and the right to make a work available to the public- and moral rights - the right to be identified as the author and the right to prevent mistreatment.
To qualify for protection the work must be original in the sense that it is an author’s own intellectual creation, i.e. it reflects the author’s personality, the author was able to express their creative abilities in the production of the work by making free and creative choices.
Copyright protects the artistic or literary form, but not the subject matter. The work that is created is protected, but not to the ideas or theories/ concepts represented. The ideas vs expression debate is a central part of the copyright discourse when looking to build on or reuse the work or ideas of another. If you are using the work itself this is likely to involve copyright issues, but if you are looking to use the ideas rather than the work this may not involve copyright issues at all.
Copyright is finite and lasts for a set duration based on the type of work and where it was created.
In Europe and USA this period is 70 years after the author dies. According to the international Berne Convention the minimum protection period is the life of the author plus 50 years after their death. Copies or reproductions of works where copyright expired do not get protection in EU or USA:
When copyright expires it becomes Public Domain however given the differences in duration across borders a work may be Public Domain in one country yet still under copyright in another.
@@ -359,14 +359,14 @@When a work enters the Public Domain it is free to be used by anyone in any way without the permission of the owner. When copyright expires also the moral rights of the creator expire, so works can be altered and used without crediting the author. However, many countries have given public authorities, such as the Ministry of Education/ Culture the possibility to protect the ‘educational and cultural value’ of works that are in the public domain, Italy for example.
Ownership is important as it determines who has control over how and when a work is used, as well as who can access and use it. Owners, also known as rights holders, have the right to control who can access the work, how they can use it, if they can make copies, how it is performed or communicated to the public. They can licence these permissions to use to a licensee or they can sell these rights completely to another party. Ownership is a requirement for licensing, for example for licensing with Creative Commons licences.
Copyright is an intangible asset which is separate to possession of a physical work such as a painting or book and transferring physical possession does not include any transfer of copyright.
Using a work without permission from the copyright owner, usually in the form of a licence, is a copyright infringement, unless an exception applies.
Copyright ownership is granted to the creator of the work in the EU automatically by copyright legislation. However, this can be changed by contract. In the UK for example, the law says the creator is the owner but if a work was created in the course of employment, the employer will own the copyright unless the employment contract says otherwise. The US has a work-for-hire clause in the copyright legislation so that copyright is born to the employer if not otherwise agreed. Even ownership is not quite straightforward and local knowledge is important.
Owners of copyright works are able to apply any licensing conditions they wish to their work, however research funders may make it a condition of a grant that certain outputs arising from funded research must be released openly. Where this is the case, they will communicate their preferred licensing choice.
The most common licences used are Creative Commons licences. Creative Commons licences are intended to pre-approve certain uses meaning a user can make use of a work within the terms of those licence conditions. If a user wishes to make other uses they will need to contact the owner in the usual way and negotiate separate permissions. If a user breaches the Creative Commons terms they can be sued for infringement by the owner.
Creative Commons licences do not impact on the ownership status of the work- they are simply licences. Only the copyright owner of a work has the authority to grant a Creative Commons licence.
@@ -380,14 +380,14 @@Researchers will produce copyright protected works when writing articles, monographs or code. Researchers will need protection for the right to be recognised as authors and also as owners of copyright. Research ethics requires contributors to be recognised in a research output, even if they are not owners or authors in a copyright sense. Good scientific research requires contributor roles to be defined and mentioned in research outputs and CRediT – Contributor Role Taxonomy (niso.org) describes 14 roles that can be used when defining contributor roles. Contributor roles should be agreed before sending a manuscript to a publisher.
Researchers will use works created by others- either as a fundamental part of their research methodology or during publication. Where exceptions like those for non-commercial research or non-commercial data mining do not apply, ensuring that licences are in place that allow for the uses within the research activity is essential. The use of research data and the management of data related rights should be considered and outlined within the data management plan which must also take into account how the research data are to be archived and used, as well as how the authors of the data are attributed in compliance with research ethics.
In order to use the copyright protected work, either permission from the owner, agreements covering the uses, or legislation allowing the use is needed.
Copyright legislation tries to strike a balance between protecting the freedom of sciences, expression, and information, and the protection of the copyright owner. This means that while the owner of the rights can control it, there are exceptions to those rights which enable some uses without the need for the owner’s permission. These are known as exceptions, or user rights.
Copyright exceptions include for example certain educational uses, the provision of inter library loans by libraries, text and data mining for non-commercial scientific research purposes and commercial purposes, creating accessible copies of works for those with disabilities
Copyright laws vary by country and, while EU law is largely harmonised, there are differences between member states concerning the copyright exceptions. Understanding local national law exceptions for research and education is important.
Using archival materials can raise some unusual situations which mean the normal copyright rules don’t apply. Below are a couple of examples of unusual copyright scenarios:
Works of art on public display The rules around works of art on public display vary by country. In some EU countries the so-called ’Freedom of Panorama’ rules dictate what can and cannot be done with such works for commercial purposes. Italy for example controls commercial uses of works of cultural importance regardless of their copyright status.
Contractual issues