Copyright Protection:

Copyright protection entitles you to prevent others from copying, adapting or dealing in copies of your material. Protection generally lasts for 70 years from the author\'s death, whether the finished work was published or unpublished (with variations for electronic media). Database protection lasts for fifteen years from when the database was made public or fifteen years from the beginning of the year following creation.
Copyright protection is available to owners of works which have been recorded in some permanent way involving an element of skill, effort or judgement.
Aesthetic merit in the copyright work is irrelevant and the protection is equally applicable to technical descriptions and promotional materials as to non-commercial literature and art. It is important to note, however, that although a work may be protected in this way, the idea it expresses is not.

Copyright in Business:

In the business context, copyright protection is in particular available for the following: written materials which may be used in your business, e.g. catalogues, forms, brochures, tables, compilations; computer programs and materials stored in computers; artistic works including graphics, artwork and works of artistic craftsmanship; expressions of dramatic and musical works; and electronic media including sound recordings, soundtracks, films and videos.
In addition there is special protection for databases - defined as a collection of independent works arranged systematically and accessible electronically or otherwise individually. There is, however, one important exclusion - product designs or prototypes are not normally copyright protected but they may have design right protection.

Authors' Moral Rights:

Authors of certain works have moral rights over the use to which that work is subsequently put and this must be borne in mind if you are dealing in copyright materials. In the UK you are under no obligation to register any copyright work which has been created - the right arises automatically on creation. However, as a matter of practicality, in order to record ownership and to establish and record the creation of a work, some formalities should be considered:

Ownership

The owner of a copyright will normally be the author. However, if he is your employee who creates works as a normal part of his job, you will normally be assumed to be the owner unless the employment contract says otherwise. However it would generally be appropriate to confirm the position in the employment contract. Conversely, an author of a commissioned work who is not an employee will be the legal owner in law unless the contract between you relating to the commission states to the contrary - commonly it will be agreed that copyright will pass to you on payment. In the case of jointly authored works, you should have some agreement, whereby if a member of your band, organisation or collective leaves you are all clear what will happen to the copyright of your work. The most straightforward method to take when deciding your agreement is to think of the band, organisation, collective or principal writer/writers as an employer for whom you work. (Normally if you produce work under contract for a business or third party, the business will hold the copyright to that work).
Here are some points to bear in mind when coming to your agreement. If one person writes the bulk of the work, they may wish to take the work with them if they leave, if works are written as a group effort, will they remain the property of the group after an author leaves?, copyright may exist in different forms; for example in music, as well as copyright in a sound recording, lyrics are entitled to separate copyright as a literary work. For the purposes of an agreement, it is normally easier to include them as part of the overall work, but think through what this means to each of you. what happens to royalties and commissions if any work is later published or sold? The key point is to think ahead, even if you think things will end amicably they may not, and it may cost you your friendship as well. The time to decide is before someone leaves, not after. Other points to note here are:
If a work is produced as part of your employment normally the copyright belongs to the company which hired you, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
For freelance or commissioned work, copyright will usually belong to the author of the work, unless there is a contrary agreement, (i.e. in a contract for service). Only the owner of copyright, or his exclusive licensee can bring proceedings in the courts against an infringement.
Copyright does not exist in names, colours, inventions or ideas, but may exist in a work expressing or composed from these concepts.

Record of Creation

It is vital that you keep a record as to when and where the copyright work was created and who created it. Such records are important, not only to establish creation and ownership, but also due to the fact that there are certain nationality requirements for UK copyright protection. These requirements can be met by formally depositing the work and accompanying documentary evidence of creation with your solicitor, bank etc.

Copyright registration

Their are three main ways of registering your copyright in the UK but they are all DIY systems to protect yourself as there is no official body in the UK that looks after this area or collects registrations.

1) Literary copyright registration by Registered post is comparatively cheap and often used but how would it stand up in court. It is simply to easy to fake, [for example, I have some old demo tapes from my misspent musical youth still in the registered envelopes in a drawer in my bedroom, how easy is it for me to prise it open record somebody else's new song on the old tape and re-seal it? The answer is very easy.
This method needs to be backed by good background work and witnesses to substantiate.

2) Lodging a copy with a bank or solicitor.
This is increasing being used in the creative industries by lodging documents, etc with their bank or solicitor so as to provide evidence of
originality at a later date if required. Both bodies have long experience of holding documents and rates are low. It is all down to whether you
need the costs and feel sure that your material can be retrieved in the future.

3) Registration, it is an amazing fact that there is no central governmental copyright registration body in the UK but fortunately there are some very good organisations in the UK that will register your work. It must be stressed, these organisations can offer no legal assistance and have no official legal status. But what they do offer is independent proof that you registered the software, book, art work, music etc. on a certain
date and therefore anyone claiming to have written it at a later date doesn't really have a leg to stand on. It also gives you extra clout in a show down if you can say your work is registered. The UK Copyright is one of the main examples of these type of
agencies and they charge on per item basis. Shop around for price and services.

Copyright Notices

A copyright notice is a piece of text which accompanies a work and expresses the rights and wishes of the copyright owner (s). All “authors” of text or copyright material should include one with their work. By having a copyright notice you are helping yourself to prevent infringement occurring. It enables you to announce that copyright exists in the work, make it clear who is the copyright owner, deter would be infringers, and prevent ignorance being used as a defence in disputes.

The rule to adopt is to ensure that anyone with access to your work is aware of the copyright. If your work can be broken up into several pieces, then the notice should appear on each part. If it would normally be viewed as a whole then one will suffice such as in writing a book, you should only need one inside the front cover. Leaflets commercial documents etc. should have one on each item. Web pages should have one on every page. In the music industry, one is placed on the CD, cassette or LP itself, and one is included on the accompanying sleeve or booklet. Photographs and designs will have one at the bottom of the work Manuscripts: if the work is still in the development stages you may choose to have one on every page of a manuscript, however, one on the front will normally suffice. Ensure that you obtain permission before you use anyone else’s work and include the copyright of any images, excerpts etc. that you have used which are not your own.

The copyright notice should be obvious and legible to prevent ignorance as a defence for infringement, and if applicable, (e.g. web sites) the notice should appear on every page. Mark any copies of your work with a copyright notice, on the body of the work as well as the cover or sleeve.The copyright notice should take the form of ; the actual term ‘copyright’, the copyright symbol ‘©’ [not just a ‘c’ in brackets ‘(c)’ -as some countries do not recognise this], the year [normally when first published, but for unpublished work, use the year it was written], the name of the copyright owner, (this can be an individual, collective or organisation) For sound recordings you should also include a phonogram copyright notice for the sound recording itself, using the è symbol to denote the copyright of the sound recording.

Copyright Disclaimers

A disclaimer states the terms under which the work may be used and gives information relating to what the copyright owner believes to be a breach of his/her/their copyright. In some cases you may wish to permit certain activities, in others you may wish to withhold all rights, or require the user to apply for a licence to carry out certain actions. The disclaimer should appear as a sentence after the copyright notice. There are several items to think about when wording your disclaimer.
Decide in relation to your work, what you wish to permit. Be specific in your wording, make it clear what you will allow and what is prohibited.
Think from the point of view of withholding all rights and then carefully word any allowances as exceptions, making sure it is clear that these are the only allowances you will make. Remember copyright is not normally infringed by acts done in the course of private research or study, criticism or news reporting.

Hidden Evidence

Additional evidence to support your claim in case of dispute can be built into your work. For example in software include ‘footprints’ (deliberate mistakes, algorithms etc.) which can uniquely identify you as the author. Consider using watermarks in graphics files. Keep as much of the background work as you can, e.g. Lyric sheets, music score, midi files, demo tapes and rough recordings, working documents, sketches and drafts. Earlier versions, prototypes, negatives and out takes. If you ever make a claim to the Copyright Tribunal or a court this can be very valuable as it demonstrates evolution of your ideas, dates and ownership.

What is Copyright Infringement?

Copyright infringement occurs if all or a substantial part of a copyright work is copied (even transiently e.g. on a screen) or if infringing copies are imported, held or dealt in.
With electronic works such as computer software or videos, where those works have anti-copy features, traders lawfully dealing in such works can use copyright law to prevent others unlawfully dealing in devices intended to circumvent those anti-copying features.
However, if copies of the work are already in public circulation with the copyright owner's permission, subsequent use of those copies cannot generally be restricted.
By way of exception, rentals of sound recordings, films and computer programs may be restricted.
In the case of protecting databases, the owner has rights to prevent unauthorised extraction.

Fair Dealing

Certain copying is legally permitted and is hence not copyright infringement if it is considered in law to be fair dealing. Fair dealing includes copying for research and private study, copying by libraries and educational institutions, copying for journalistic quotes and for non-commercial research, criticism and review.

Taking Action on Copyright Infringement

If you seek to prevent infringement or a continuation of infringement this is achieved by means of an injunction , provided you act promptly.
You can, in addition (or alternatively, if the damage has already been done) seek damages from the infringer based on the estimated loss from the infringement or an account of profits made by the infringer.

However, financial compensation may not be awarded if the infringer had no reason to believe that the work was copyright-hence the importance of affixing a copyright notice on the copyright work to pre-empt this defence . You may also ask the Court to order delivery upon infringing copies or articles used for making copies.
If you fear that vital evidence which may assist you in infringement proceedings might be destroyed or if the defendant's assets might be spirited away in order to avoid their use towards the payment of your damages early legal advice should be taken as no special remedies may be available.

Parallel Trade

There are special problems relating to parallel trade (namely parallel exports and parallel imports of products incorporating your copyright where you have already consented to use of the rights by another elsewhere in the EU). EU free movement principles restrict the use of intellectual property rights to prevent cross-border trade within the EU.