The basics of copyright

At its heart copyright is simple: Copyright is the "right to copy". That's it, no more, no less. But it's a concept enforced by law so we have to know, at least in general terms, what the law says about the right to copy and what it applies to.

We'll take the second part first, what does copyright apply to: If you create an original work you own the copyright, unless you have done it on someone else's behalf in which case they own it.

So, for example, a writer writes a script, he owns the copyright. That's it. The moment it comes pouring off the end of his fingers through the pen or word-processor, the copyright is there, it exists in law. You don't have to put "Copyright 2005 by Me." to apply copyright, you don't have to send it to yourself in a sealed envelope, deposit it with a third party or anything like that. However you can do these things if you want to make a point.

You create an original work and you own the copyright. This applies to scripts, stories, novels, articles, paintings, computer programs, web pages, photographs, any original creation. It also includes any private communication like e-mails. What it doesn't apply to are small groups of words, ideas or machines. Machines, devices and applications of scientific concepts are covered by patent law. Words (like "IBM" or "We're lovin' it!") can be trademarked.

Ideas, however, aren't covered by anything. If you have an idea for a story, you tell someone and then they write a story based on your idea ... well, you shouldn't have told someone so untrustworthy. You haven't got a legal leg to stand on, don't even try. Have another, better idea, it's cheaper.

If you are employed by another and it is your job to create original works, then the copyright is vested in the company you work for (this is usually in the contract). A staff writer on a magazine does not own the copyright on his work, the composers in tin-pan alley in the '60s did not own copyright on their work. And, incidentally, if a company goes bust you don't, as an ex-employee, suddenly get copyright on the things you wrote, because those original works are company assets and will be disposed of in some other fashion.

Copyright theft: Yours

However when new writers ask about copyright "How do I copyright this" what they are really asking is "how do I protect this from theft". New writers are usually very concerned about having their ideas stolen. Particularly in the film industry, where millions could be riding on a good script, people become very concerned about copyright theft (as both accuser or accusee). It is important as a writer to ensure that your copyright can be proven, posting a copy of a script to yourself is not considered a good method any more. You should lodge your original creation with one of the many repositories you can find on the Web.

Having said that it is very very rare for a script to be stolen, or a book, or anything else. Sometimes people think their work have been stolen because a story with a similar idea appears. There is nothing to stop anyone having the same idea as you. In fact it's very likely that someone, somewhere is having a similar idea. It's what they do with it that counts. And don't forget there is no protection for ideas, because ideas are the cheapest thing in the universe.

If you are really concerned that you might need to prove, in court, that you own the copyright on a particular work then what you need is proof of development. You need notes, earlier drafts, letters from people who've read earlier versions, and so on. A thief is unlikely to fake all the developmental work because it's hard. With proof of development you stand a chance.

Copyright theft: Theirs

Let's talk about the Web for aminute. There is a very nasty, and very false, idea that when something is placed on the Web it somehow loses its copyright. It doesn't. Copyright is copyright and unless someone has given you express permission (preferably written) to copy their work you don't have that right. Every web page is copyright to the author or company – unless it's been purloined from someone else's web site or book, in which case it's stolen.

Hang in there...

In the UK and Europe copyright continues to exist for 70 years after the author's death, which is quite a long time. So you can't go ripping off work from people who've died more recently than (as of August 2006) August 1936. Instead you have to "option the rights" for an adaptation from the copyright owner. However anyone before that is fair game, except for one important issue: what are you using for source material?

If you're using another publisher's interpretation of a work then they have copyright on the presentation of their version, and you can't have that. You have to use only the original source work, but if you can safely extract that from someone else's presentation then you are theoretically on safe ground ... but how sure are you that they haven't done something to the source material to make it theirs? Make sure you do your research thoroughly.

As we're talking about research let's look briefly at plagiarism, which means taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own (also copyright theft). Often the plagiarist will change the text a bit but it's usually obvious. This is different to research, where you take the work from lots of different people, combine it, then pass it off as your own (joke). With research it is usual to credit your sources so the plagiarism accusation doesn't apply.

So, to summarise, when you "create an original work" (and you're not being paid to do it by someone else) you have copyright on it, that means that you say who can use it and when. And always assume that everything else is copyright unless you know for certain that it isn't.

Steve Turnbull