Dealing with Intellectual Property
Copyright ownership, duration and fair dealing
Copyright protects a creative work, but the person who made it is not always the person who owns the rights. Ownership can change hands, the right runs out after a set time, and a few uses are allowed without asking.
Who owns the copyright
Copyright belongs to the creator of the work: the person who wrote, drew, composed or programmed it. Ownership can move, though:
- If an employee creates a work as part of their job, the employer usually owns the copyright. The employee was paid to produce the work, so the organisation that paid keeps the rights.
- Rights can be transferred to another person or organisation, for example by selling them or leaving them to someone in a will. Whoever receives the rights then decides how the work may be used.
| Situation | Who owns the copyright |
|---|---|
| A student writes a short story at home in the evening | The student, because they created it |
| A web developer builds a site for a company during working hours | The company, because it was made as part of their job |
| A photographer leaves the copyright in her photos to a wildlife charity in her will | The charity, because the rights were transferred |
How long copyright lasts
Copyright does not last for ever. It lasts for a period set by law, and the length depends on the type of work. Once that period expires, anyone can reprint, adapt or reuse an old book whose copyright has run out, without asking permission.
Fair dealing
Fair dealing lets you use a copyright work without permission in a few limited cases while the right is still in force: private study or research, education, criticism or review, reporting current events and private back-ups.
It is not a general permission to use a work however you like. The use must be fair, usually limited in amount, and must not take away the owner's chance to make money. Quoting two sentences from a geography textbook in a school project is fair dealing; scanning the whole book and publishing it online is not, because you copied far more than you needed.
Practise this
Pearson BTEC Digital Information Technology · Dealing with intellectual property