英国版权法

Copyright law of the United Kingdom The modern concept of copyright originated in the United Kingdom, in the year 1710, with

the Statute of Anne.

The current copyright law of the United Kingdom is to be found in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the 1988 Act), as amended. This came into force on 1 August 1989, for the most part, save for some minor provisions

Various amendments have been made to the original statute, mostly originating

from European Union directives.

Works eligible for protection[edit]

The types of work eligible for copyright protection include a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work, the typographical arrangement of a published edition, a sound recording, a film, or a broadcast.[1]

Cinema films made before 1 June 1957, the date on which the Copyright Act 1956[2] came into force, are not protected as film. They are either protected as a dramatic work under

the Copyright Act 1911 (the 1911 Act) or as a series of photographs.

Wireless broadcasts prior to 1 June 1957 are not protected at all. The 1911 Act made no provision for them, as broadcasting had not as

yet been invented when the Act was passed. Broadcasts by cable prior to 1 January 1985 are not protected at all either. Both the Acts of 1911 and 1956 made no provision for broadcasts by cable, as they had not been defined and protected as either "works" or "broadcasts" of either Acts.

Qualification for protection[edit]

The 1911 Act provides that an individual's work is automatically under copyright, by operation of law, as soon as it leaves his mind and is embodied in some physical form: be it a novel, a painting, a musical work written in manuscript, or an architectural schematic. This remains the

legal position under the Schedules of 1956 Act and of the 1988 Act.

Once reduced to physical form, provided it is an original work (in the sense of not having been copied from an existing work), then copyright in it vests automatically in (i.e. is owned by) the author: the person who put the concept into material form. There are exceptions to this rule, depending upon the nature of the work, if it was created in the course of employment.

The question of who is the "author" of a work, and what rights attach to the author, is further discussed below.

In order to grant copyright protection to computer databases, UK copyright law recognises the element of labour and skill used in compiling them, even though they are not in truth original works (being entirely derived from existing records),[3] applying a principle sometimes called the 'Sweat of the Brow' doctrine; they are also protected by database right (see below).

The term 'Unfair Use'[4] is sometimes applied in that context, to refer to the use of a work into which someone has invested a lot of skill and labour, but where little or no originality is present. This is mainly in the case of