Media law lecture 6- Copyright

Copyright- a section of media law I was already familiar with as a result of the lecture with former head of BBC copyright Peter Hodges. He covered the majority of what is found in Mc Nae’s essential law for journalists, however this lecture was more journalist based, and therefore a few interesting points still managed to pop up.

Firstly copyright is a criminal offence and falls under the copyright act of 1911 and therefore is a much older law than I originally expected. It is defined as the legal protection of intellectual property, as before this law intellectual property could be stolen as it was not protected and therefore it could be taken by anyone else for them to be given the credit for it. Copyright however does not cover ideas; this is of great importance as if something has not been made such as a piece of work which has been physically made then it can be taken.

It is also important to understand that any material taken from the internet must have permission or have been created by the person wishing to use it, as this is intellectual property and is therefore protected under the copyright act.

Any work created belongs to the person who has created until it is sold to another person or organisation and this includes physical work. The selling of labour for wages means that a fixed fee has been paid for the work and it no longer belongs to you. This is important to know as royalties; an advance of money given to the person for the use of their work can no longer be given. A royalty is usually a sum of money in the region of 10% of the predicted sales of the piece of work. This is known as a one off licence fee.

Ownership being retained of a piece of work but every time someone changes the work that you have created a charge can then be applied.

Fair dealing however, mentioned by Peter Hodges means that a copyrighted piece of work can be used in a clip of a few seconds in a review which is commenting on that piece of work and therefore is a defence for journalists who have used copyrighted material.