Copyright

Copyright

Copyright Designs and Patents Act came into force in 1988 and is the current copyright act in the UK that is used to prevent copying, distributing or publishing work without the creator/owners consent.

Photographs are the property of the photographer unless they have been commissioned or employed by a company to take them in which case they belong to the company giving the company the copyright to the material.  Copyright was invented to give creators of art/media work the right to how it is used or distributed.  Work protected by copyright can have more than one copyright i.e. an album can have more than one copyright as the artwork and songs could have separate copyrights.  Work does not have to be registered or recorded anywhere to be copyright protected as it will automatically be protected but the 'Intellectual Property Office' recommends that you add the copyright symbol and the year of production to safeguard it. Copyright work maybe sold or licensed to others for use (if it is licensed the ownership rights can be retained) to make money.  Copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator.  Websites such as the intellectual property office 'www.ipo.gov.uk' contain facts to cover all aspects of copyright.

Nowadays a lot of photographs and artwork are uploaded via social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.  In understanding copyright laws one must also understand the terms and conditions that such sites publish especially when signing up to such sites.  It is also important to understand that once material has been uploaded onto such sites, even if it is removed by the person that uploaded it, it may still be on the internet as other users may have shared it.


Organisations such as DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) have been created to help protect the rights of artists, help in obtaining royalties and acquire licenses to use works of art.  This website is extremely useful and contains information on schemes on how to claim back for work that has been used in magazines, TV or books and also fact sheets on how to use social media safely to upload work.

'In a Telegraph article, Callum Sinclair, Partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology group of law firm DLA Piper, says that Twitter's terms to which every new member must agree "grant extremely broad rights over your content… With these terms companies are saying 'you own your content, but we can just use it however we want.'"

Mr Sinclair explains "In reality there is little difference between your ownership and their licence when the terms of the licences over your content are this broad."'(https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base/factsheets/understanding-social-media-terms-and-conditions)

Social Media should therefore be selected and used very carefully for uploading and promoting work.