Copyright Law and Intellectual Property - Essay Example

Copyright Law Copyright comes into force, immediately upon the creation of a creative work or music composition, either by an individual or a company. Thus it is an automatic right, whose existence depends upon the creation of a work. However, there are certain requirements to be fulfilled, if copyright protection is to be obtained. Some of these are, the work for which copyright is required must be original, it must contain some degree of labour by its creator, or there should be some sort of skill or creativity exercised by its creator (The UK Copyright Service, 2004). The copyright’s interpretation and protection is mainly related to the indigenous creation of the work. It does not apply to the idea that underlies its creation. As such, copyright protects the presentation of the idea. For instance, an idea behind a book is not protected but the presentation of the idea in the form of a book through the content is protected. This means that other individuals can also utilize the same idea and write a book based on that idea; however, they cannot claim copyright if the content of the book is copied or if it is an adaptation of another writer’s presentation of that idea (The UK Copyright Service, 2004). Names, titles, phrases and specific colours are ineligible to be granted a copyright, because they are not considered to be unique or distinct. They are also not sufficiently tangible to be protected by copyright law. However, a logo which contains all these components can be protected by copyright. Therefore, the form in which an idea or a creative work is presented can be protected by copyright law. Nevertheless, just the idea behind such a presentation cannot be protected (The UK Copyright Service, 2004). The Institute for Public Policy Research or the IPPR claims that millions of consumers infringe the copyright law by illegally copying the content of CD’s and DVD’s. The usual practice is to store the content of CD’s and DVD’s on computer hard disk drives or on optical discs. This practice makes it look as though there is some kind of private right to duplicate copyrighted content. According to Ian Kearns, Deputy Director of IPPR, the existing English law with regard to copyrights cannot counter the unlawful practices adopted by consumers, due to the sophistication of the technology employed (HOME NEWS, October 30, 2006; Pg. 15 ). The existing law provides a legalised private right to copy, to the people. Under this private right, consumers are freely copying the contents of CD’s or DVD’s onto their computer hard drives or onto other storage media, despite the fact that such contents are protected by copyright. In this way people are violating the law. Music companies and the music industry have to protect the legitimate rights of copyright holders. In order, to achieve this they have to ascertain, whether there is any illegal distribution and sharing of copyrighted material. Although, copying for personal use can be permitted; the music industry cannot decide the rights of consumers. The government and law enforcement agencies will decide what rights a consumer has. The present life of a copyright is fifty years but the music industry is demanding that this limitation is to be extended to ninety – five years. The IPPR maintains that the existing fifty year term is adequate (HOME NEWS, October 30, 2006; Pg. 15 ). Copyrights and intellectual property rights protect creative works, music recordings and books. They protect the interests of the owners of such works. In a broader sense, intellectual property rights protect human intellectual creativity. The fundamental objective of intellectual property law is to secure the rights of creators of works and to provide them with significant controls over their works. Under this protection, creators and owners of works can avoid the risk of being copied by others. Thus no other person should infringe copyrights and exploit creative works in any manner, which could result in financial loss or loss of reward to the genuine copyright holders. Copyrights, patents, trademarks, design rights, protection from distribution of infringed material, and protection for confidential information or material all come under the scope of intellectual property rights (Intellectual Property Rights - Overview , 2008). The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 deals with copyright law in the United Kingdom. There were several amendments to this act, and the amendment of October 2003 integrated this act with the EU Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (EU Copyright Directive) 2001. This act effectively deals with the problems and infringements that occur over the Internet. Furthermore, the UK is a signatory to several international conventions and treaties relating to copyrights and copyright legislation. In order to make the Act operate along the lines of the provisions of international conventions and treaties, the Act has been subjected to amendments on several occasions (Intellectual Property Rights - Overview , 2008). Journals, books, papers, proceedings, computer programmes and software are written works, which are defined as literary works. There is no limitation with regard to the length of these works, but they must have a statutory minimum length. Thus, copyright do not provide protection for single sentences and single words. Such words, logos and sentences can get protection under the trademarks act. In the area of the internet, copyright law protects hyperlinks and web page titles. Similarly, copyright act does not protect facts, but a collection and presentation of facts is considered to be a database, which can obtain protection under Database Rights. Databases, entailing some level of labour and creativity in arranging the data, can be protected by copyright (Copyright and Digital Images, 2006). Authorities in the field of copyright, generally contend that the Berne Treaty standards of protection are not satisfied in practice. This is due to the fact that the UK’s legislation includes various categories of materials for the application of rules of the copyright act. However, the act does not interpret such categories before extending the application of the rules. This practice brings about a distinction between the original works and derivative works from the original works. In the context of the UK, an original work is one that is not a copy of some other work by some other author. Thus an original work should not originate from any other source. Such original works can be copyrighted to the extent of the labour, skill and creativity invested in them (Stamatoudi, 2002. P. 53). Copyright can be treated as a property right, because it deals with the protection of intellectual property or creative works that have some element of intellect. It protects the interests of authors and owners of creative works, and the investment and industry of publishers who had spent money for the publication of those works. In order to get protection under the copyright act, a work must be an original literary work. The other categories that are protected by the copyright act include dramatic works, musical works, artistic works, films and broadcasted materials, works of sound recordings such as music and speech, and compilations of data and creative arrangement of publication materials (What is copyright?, 2003). List of References Copyright and Digital Images. (2006, October). Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/managing/copyright.html HOME NEWS. (October 30, 2006; Pg. 15 ). Copyright laws need an overhaul. The Times (London) . Intellectual Property Rights - Overview . (2008, April 25). Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ipr/IntellectualProperty.htm Stamatoudi, I. A. (2002. P. 53). Copyright and Multimedia Products: A Comparative Analysis. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0521808197. The UK Copyright Service. (2004, August 11). Fact sheet P-01: UK Copyright Law. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law What is copyright? (2003, October). Retrieved May 2, 2008, from A Guide to copyright for Students: http://www.le.ac.uk/ua/ac/registry/info/CopyrightGuide.pdf Read More