Copyright Protection example essay topic

Copyright comes into effect immediately, as soon as something that can be protected is created and "fixed" in some way, e.g. on paper, on film, via sound recording, as an electronic record on the internet, etc. It is a good idea for you to mark your copyright work with the copyright symbol (c) followed by your name and the date, to warn others against copying it, but it is not legally necessary in the UK. The types of works that copyright protects are: original literary works, e.g. novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, lyrics for songs, articles in newspapers, some types of databases, but not names or titles; original dramatic works, including works of dance or mime; original musical works; original artistic works, e.g. paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, works of architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps, logos; published editions of works, i.e. the typographical arrangement of a publication; sound recordings, which may be recordings on any medium, e.g. tape or compact disc, and may be recordings of other copyright works, e.g. musical or literary; films, including videos; and broadcasts and cable programmes. So the above works are protected by copyright, regardless of the medium in which they exist and this includes the internet. You should also note that copyright does not protect ideas.

It protects the way the idea is expressed in a piece of work, but it does not protect the idea itself. If you are the local, it is easy to protect your material overseas. Usually, but not invariably. The UK is a member of several international conventions in this field, notably the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). Copyright material created by UK nationals or residents is protected in each member country of the conventions by the national law of that country. Most countries belong to at least one of the conventions, including all the Western European countries, the USA and Russia.

A full list of the conventions and their member countries may be obtained from the Copyright Directorate. Protection overseas can also arise from obligations in the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which forms part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement. But maybe it is difficult in your country. There is no such thing as an all-embracing international registration for designs. If you want to protect your design outside your country, you generally have to make a separate application to each country in which you want protection.

If you apply to register your design in a country that has signed the International Convention, you can claim 'priority' from your earliest application for the same design in another Convention country, provided you apply within six months of the earliest filing date in that Convention country. You must support your application with 'Convention documents' which certify details of your earlier application. When you put your work on a web site, it is probably a good idea to mark each page of the web site with the international (c) mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication. In addition, you could include information on your web site about the extent to which you are content for others to use your copyright material without permission. Although material on a web site is protected by copyright in the same way as material in other media, you should bear in mind that web sites are accessible from all over the world and, if material on your web site is used without your permission, you would generally need to take action for copyright infringement where this use occurs.

There is the other important thing, how long does copyright last? Copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work (including a photograph) lasts until 70 years after the death of the author. The duration of copyright in a film is 70 years after the death of the last to survive of the principal director, the authors of the screenplay and dialogue, and the composer of any music specially created for the film. Sound recordings, broadcasts and cable programmes are protected for 50 years, and published editions are protected for 25 years (in China). A registered design is a monopoly right for the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the: lines, contours, colours, shape, texture, materials of the product or its ornamentation. To qualify for registration, your design must be new which means that it must not be the same as any design which has already been made available to the public, and have individual character which means that the overall impression it produces on an informed user of the design must differ from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has already been made available to the public.

But some designs can not be registered which are concerned only with how a product works, or for parts of complex products that are not visible in normal use, or contrary to law or morality. Registration can last for a maximum of 25 years and is a property that, like any other business commodity, may be bought, sold, or licensed. A registered design is additional to any design right or copyright protection that may exist automatically in the design.