LibGuides: Copyright Guide: Copyright

1. What is Copyright?

1.1	Copyright is an intellectual property right. Copyright applies to works.
1.2	Authorial Works – LDMA
	L – Literary This includes text in books, articles in periodicals, compilation works (not just tables and listings but multimedia works are considered a type of compilation work as well) and computer programs. D – Dramatic This includes scripts or scenarios for plays or films and works of dance or mime. M – Musical This includes musical scores. A – Artistic This includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, photographs, a building or model of a building. Drawings include any diagram, map, chart or plan.
1.3	Works other than authorial works
	Sound Recordings Films Sound and TV Broadcasts Cable Programmes Published editions of authorial works (the publisher will have copyright in the font, layout, design and other features in the edition. These rights are different from the copyright the author would have in the text i.e. literary work. Usually however the author would have assigned all his/her rights in the literary work to the publisher). All the above in 1.2 and 1.3 enjoy copyright protection regardless of their literary, artistic or other merit.
1.4	The person who owns the copyright has the exclusive right to stop others from copying or reproducing the work. This right is legally enforceable. In fact, the law sets out a comprehensive list of acts, which may be done only by or with the permission of the copyright owner. The acts differ based on the type of work in question. For example, the Copyright Act states that only the copyright owner can do any of the following in relation to his literary, dramatic or musical works: A. make a copy (photocopying, printing, digitizing etc) B. publish C. perform the work in public D. broadcast E. include the material in a cable programme F. make an adaptation of the material (adaptation has a legal meaning which is more restrictive than the ordinary meaning of the word. It means converting a dramatic work into a non-dramatic form or vice-versa, creating a version of an existing computer programme, translations of literary works and transcription of musical works). However, for artistic works, the acts which only the copyright owner can do are more limited: A. make a copy B. publish C. communicate the works to the public It is therefore important to check what acts are protected for each kind of work.
1.5	Copyright does not protect the idea or substance underlying a work or other subject matter. It protects the form in which the idea is expressed. Take the case of a person wanting to write a book on mathematics. The basic ideas would be derived from the existing pool of written knowledge on mathematics. This would not be an infringement if different styles, approaches, examples, and expressions apart from those found in existing books or other material are involved in creating the new work.
1.6	Creators and performers of works and performances also have a right to be identified whenever their work or performance is used. The identification must be clear and reasonably prominent, and must appear on each copy of the work or performance or, if inappropriate, in a manner likely to be noticed by a person acquiring a copy or seeing or hearing the performance. The author(s) of the work should be identified in the way they wish to be identified (if such form of identification is known) or otherwise by any reasonable form of identification.