Understanding Copyright

Copyright is "the right for the owner/creator/publisher to control how their material can be used".

Copyright covers films, games, animation, music, computer acts, drawings/illustrations - anything that is the result of an independent intellectual effort or a collaborative effort.

Author can object if their work is mutilated, defamed or distorted in any way. Sometimes though, copyright rights go to the company or employer involved with the property in question.

Copyright can be transfererd or sold to another party. In the UK, copyright is automatic. Literary, dramatic, artistic and photographic works are copyrights for life + 70 years of the creator.

Sounds recordings and copyrighted for 70 years only. (Cliff Richard got this changed from 50 to 70 in 2011).

Getting permission to use properties - you can contact the owner/organisation/company representing them directly. Otherwise, they can object and possibly sue.

If the thing you want to use the property for is commercial, you must ask permission. Non-commercial, education, research of private study does not generally need you to ask permission, although you may need an agreement for multiple copies.

Claiming Copyright
- Watermark etc
- Leave it/deposit it with a bank or lawyer
- Post it to yourself sealed with a date stamp.

If someone is breaching your copyright, talk to them first!

Any legal action would take place in the country where the infringement happened. Social Networking can have complex terms and conditions and may claim your work as their own.

Copyleft is like the opposite; they are a novel use of existing copyright to ensure work remains freely available.

Creative Commons - non-profit, providing legal framework to let people share, remix and reuse legally. Simple, standardised and an alternative to the "all rights reserved" paradigm of traditional licensing, as long as you credit everything.

There are also alternative that:
- do anything commercially but again apply credit
- Redistribution, commercial and otherwise usage is fine as long as it is unchanged with credit to you
- Remixing, tweaking and building on for non-commercial use as long as they are credited and also licensed under the same terms.