Legislation

Question 1

What is the main legislation in the UK for copyright?

Answer 1

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988)

Question 2

Under the UK’s Copyright Designs and Patents Act, is copyright granted automatically or is registration of the work required?

Answer 2

Copyright is granted automatically. No registration is required

Question 3

What sorts of works does the UK’s Copyright Designs and Patents Act (1988) give protection to?

Answer 3

Literary works
Artistic works
Dramatic works
Musical works
Sound recordings
Films
Broadcasts
Typographical arrangements of other works (e.g. arranging a book of poems in a particular order)

Question 4

The UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) grants copyright holders various exclusive rights. What rights are these?

Answer 4

Exclusive rights (meaning that you have the right to do it yourself, and control and even block other people from doing it) to:
- Make copies of the work in any material form (right to reproduce)
- Distribute the works (e.g. sale, renting or lending) (right to distribute)
- Make derivative works (right to adapt)
- Broadcast the work or make it available online (right to communicate to the public)
- Perform the work in public (Right to perform the work in public)
- Controlling rental and lending of the work (different to the right to distribute - this is about library books and rentals of films from blockbusters) (Right to rent or lend copies)

Question 5

The UK has a law called the Registered Designs Act (1949). It gives some exclusive rights to the owners. How long is the owner granted these rights for?

Answer 5

5 years, and then the owner can renew the registration every 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years of protection for their design

Question 6

The UK has a law called the Registered Designs Act (1949). It gives some exclusive rights to the owners of a design. What are these rights?

Answer 6

The right to use the design themselves, and the right to prevent others from using the design without permission

Question 7

Does the UK’s Registered Designs Act (1949) grant protection to unregistered designs?

Answer 7

It grants some protections. For the full protections the designs need to be registered, but it gives three years of protection against copying for unregistered designs from the date they’re made public in the EU