Venturing into the Realm of Copyright (w/ Copyright Disclaimer!)
Yaaay, copyright!
What a brilliant topic! What an interesting blog entry this is going to be!
But joking aside. Since I will be combining mixed media from different origins with our own original footage in my job as an editor for our Teacher Central project, I decided that this would be a splendid opportunity to read up on copyright in general, both in the UK as well as internationally to get a better understanding of the legal boundaries, different types of copyright and copyright exemptions.
Whilst it might not be the most joyful topic to acquire knowledge about, it is nonetheless an important concept to understand and apply thoroughly; not only for reasons of due diligence, but also for the reason stated above.
My Resources
Thus and for the purpose of my research, I looked at sources about copyright information from the US and UK. I figured that – since these are big/nearby film industries – learning about their rulings on individual copyrights cannot hurt but only enhance my understanding. This I furthermore did against the backdrop of us using mostly American media sources.
As such, my sources of choice are currently:
The Copyright Clearance Center (US)
CC Creative Commons (US)
Intellectual Property Office (UK)
BBC (UK, duh!)
Due to their individual aims, these resources were highly informative. As such, The Copyright Clearance Center for example not only offers access to national and international resources, but also offers courses teaching about copyright and copyright issues.
CC Creative Commons, on the other hand, made it their goal to make the jungle of copyright more accessible to laymen, breaking the particularities of this tremendous legal matter down into easily understandable bite-size chunks.
The Intellectual Property Office on the other hand, they have been noticeably short and concise in their explanations, offering a variety of web links to follow for further information. One of these links provided me with a copy of The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which will be of importance in a bit.
With the BBC, they made understanding copyright even easier by creating quick videos on the matter, illustrating the basics, permissions, and exceptions.
But What is Copyright?
Copyright is a legal right, which purpose is to protect the intellectual property of creators, such as e.g. writers, designers, artists, musicians, and – in our case – filmmakers. It formulates a set of rules, rights, as well as responsibilities as to how someone’s intellectual property can be used, giving the author – or owner – full control over third party-usage of their work.
Or, as the Copyright Clearance Center put it more elegantly:
”The main goals of copyright are to encourage the development of culture, science and innovation, while providing a financial benefit to copyright holders for their works, and to facilitate access to knowledge and entertainment for the public. Copyright provides a framework for relationships between the different players in the content industries, as well as for relationships between rightsholders and the consumers of content.”
In the UK, this ‘set of rules’ is currently defined by The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which is considered to be one of the strongest copyright regulations around the world.
However, in order for intellectual property to be able to be copyrighted, it needs to be both original and tangible, and as such, the BBC offers a splendid definition of what ‘original’ and ‘tangible’ entail:
“Original: For a work to be original it must be the product of your own skill and labour or intellectual creation and should not just replicate the work of someone else (such as imitating a drawing or a painting).”
(This definition is, in part, borrowed from the wording of The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which puts emphasis on the aspect of exhibiting ‘a degree of labour, skill or judgement.’)
“Tangible: This means that it can’t just be an idea you've had. Instead you need to have expressed that idea in a physical form. When you make up a tune in your head, it is only protected by copyright from the moment you write down the musical score or record a performance of it.”
As many of you already gleaned from these quotes, this means that it is not the idea per se that would be copyrighted, but the particular expression of that idea as it took form in the physical world. In addition to that, The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 furthermore states that:
‘Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not generally considered unique or substantial enough to be covered, but a creation, such as a logo, that combines these elements may be.’
Thus, examples of pieces of copyrightable media would e.g. be written works such as books, poems, but also blogs (!), audible works such as music, compositions, and lyrics, visual media such as photos and film footage, as well as drawings, and even physical performances in film, dance, and theatre. However, purchasing a copy of a piece of work – such as a DVD – does not equate buying the copyright itself.
Obtaining Copyright Protection
With this definition, copyright is thus a so-called ’automatic right’ that is automatically generated whenever someone creates a piece of work that is physically expressed. As such, and as pointed out by the Intellectual Property Office, a registration or even a payment of a ’copyright fee’ is not required as the UK does not have a copyright registry available. And while it is always possible to mark intellectual property with the infamous copyright symbol, not doing so does not waive your rights to your works.
Some examples of owner’s rights would e.g. be:
the right to copy, change or sell your work
the right to share your work online
the right to rent your work to someone
the right to object to distortions of your work
the right to prohibit third parties from the abovementioned actions, and even
the right to sell or give the copyright of your work to third parties for free (with and without requirements).
Interestingly enough, these rights do not apply in every case. For, if a particular piece of work is created as part of an employment, the author of that piece of work will no longer be the owner of the copyright, but their employer (be it company or individual) will possess the copyright. This scenario might play out differently in commissioned or freelance work, as the author here would usually also remain the owner of the copyright.
Duration of Copyright
In the UK, the duration of which a certain piece of work is protected under copyright laws is dependant on the type and date of the work created. As such, the copyright duration varies for the following categories of media, as provided by The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
Public Domain
Once a copyright has expired or has remained unclaimed, it will then enter public domain, which refers to intellectual property that is no longer protected by copyright. However, certain works can also immediately enter public domain if they do not fall under copyright laws to begin with (such as facts, ideas, written government documentation), or – even rarer – if the owner has ‘donated’ their intellectual property to the public. When or what kind of work enters public domain might however differ from country to country.
However – apart from Public Domain – there are exceptions to this rule, which I will cover a bit further down.
Copyright Across Borders
As already seen in the case of public domain, each country does have its own copyright law. And while the individual copyright practices may vary, most countries will nonetheless ensure to protect works created elsewhere much like they would protect creations of their own people.This is due to the existence of a handful of different international agreements, such as e.g. the well-quoted Berne Convention, which has hitherto been signed by almost 180 countries around the globe.
Thus, generally speaking, it can be stated that most countries’ copyright legislation accounts for a copyright duration minimum of life plus 50 years for the majority of written, dramatic and artistic content, and at least 25 years for photographs.
Exceptions and Limitations
As a consumer of media (or ‘content’) there are still some things you are allowed to do even without seeking permission of the copyright owner or even having to pay them. These exceptions fall under the term ‘Fair Dealing’ and usually apply in cases such as:
News reporting
Library lending
Personal use back ups
Recording of content for later use (‘time shifting)
Educational contexts
Parody
This is especially important within any educational context, such as teaching at universities and schools, but also in regard to private research and study in general. As such, you are e.g. allowed to cite from works and material (songs, books, films, etc.) as long as you credit the author. And even creating a parody is allowed if you don’t damage the owner’s reputation and only use/refer to a small part of the original work, but not all of it.
However, in contrast to the abovementioned cases, without prior consent from the copyright owner, it is not permitted to:
Copy their work
Issue copies of their work to the public
Broadcast or show their work in public
Adapt their work
This is regardless of whether this is done for personal financial gain or not.
Licensing Copyrighted Material: Gaining Permission
Using another’s copyrighted work within your own creative work as such would usually require to ask its creator/owner for permission to use; this can happen either in the form of a license or a contract.
In order to obtain permission, you would thus be required to find out who the owner(s) of the copyright might be and contact them individually. This might especially be important if a piece of work – a film for example – has multiple copyright owners to it.
The copyright owner has the opportunity to license the (terms of) use for their work in any way, shape or form they desire. As such, they can register with a licensing body, which will agree licences with users and collect royalties in exchange. Furthermore, as the Intellectual Property Office points out on their website:
”An exclusive licence could be granted, but remember that this enables the licensee to use the copyright work in the manner specified by the licence to the exclusion of all others, including the copyright owner.”
Furthermore:
”You may prefer to allow limited access to their work without charge. One way to do this is by using a Creative Commons Licence.”
Creative Commons Licences
Creative Commons is an US-American company that was founded back in 2001 with the intention of legally making available creative works for third parties to use. As such, they have hitherto released seven different copyright licenses, which are called Creative Commons Licenses. These licenses are free of charge and allow copyright holders to decide what kind of rights they want to reserve and which they want to waive.
These licenses, in a quick overview, are:
Public Domain (globally free content, no restrictions)
Attribution Alone (only credits required)
Attribution and ShareAlike (credits required and derivative work needs to be released under the same license)
Attribution and Noncommercial (credits required but cannot be used for commercial purposes)
Attribution and Noncommercial and ShareAlike (credits and same license required, cannot be used for commercial purposes)
Attribution and No Derivatives (credits required and commercial use allowed, but no remixes allowed)
Attribution and Noncommercial and NoDerivatives (credits required, can only be shared)
My Learning
Now, what does all this mean to my work on Teacher Central?
First and foremost, since our piece is part of an educational exercise, it would fall under the ‘Fair Dealing’ rule as described above. However, even as such, I will be required to credit the creator of the content used within our credits or within further documentation, such as this blog.
Firstly, it entails identifying the relevant copyright owner(s) of each and every piece of content, as well as checking the provided contents for any explicit statements regarding their permitted use, especially in regard to the precise way they want to be credited.
Secondly, and depending on the provided license, even within an educational context it will most likely require me to acknowledge whether their content has been altered by us.
Thirdly, if no information has been given, neither about the owner, nor about the copyright license itself, this might require me to plan in additional time in order to obtain another legal option that can be used for our purposes. Whilst I would technically be able to credit them as anonymous, this might backfire later on if we decided to really move this forward into a commercial piece and thus wanted to buy the copyright for commercial use.
As you can see, there is still a lot legal stuff to consider, even as an editor.
!!! Disclaimer-Update !!! (07.05.2019)
As such, and regarding the use of background videos in our educational video, I herewith need to state that the following background used for the post-apocalypse scene is part of the game Homefront Revolution (2014), belongs to SHAREfactory and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, and has all its rights reserved:
'Homefront Revolution' by SHAREfactory and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc
Its use in our video however, which is expressedly an academic exercise, falls under the rule of Fair Dealing. We do not own this background video.
As for the other background videos used in our video and listed below, they either fall under the Creative Commons Attributions License (CC-BY):
‘Silent Forest’ by NatureClip (http://youtube.com/natureclip)
Or under the MIT licence (Free for Commercial Use):
‘Waterfalls Nature’ by Evg Alex Paul Official and Goodfon (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXODwpiBv5zLynghXo4KGOg)
Which have hereby been credited.
Finally, we have created any other background videos used.
References:
BBC (n.d.) Copyright Aware: What is Copyright? [online] Image taken from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/copyrightaware/what-is [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Copyright Clearance Center (2019) About Copyright [online] https://www.copyright.com/learn/about-copyright/ [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Copyright Clearance Center (2019) Homepage [online] https://www.copyright.com [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Copyright Clearance Center (2019) Learn About Copyright [online] Image taken from: https://www.copyright.com/learn/ [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Creative Commons (2019) Downloads [online] Images taken from: https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Evg Alex Paul Official. (2018) Free Background Waterfalls Nature Video Loop Animation [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBVbBhOaq8&fbclid=IwAR3U1mUPrgO1P-YXElxw0DtnGN7yl2kLe3ZsQBI7hsuH4tOd_aJ75j2L4zE [Accessed on 7 May 2019]
Intellectual Property Office (2019) How copyright protects your work [online] https://www.gov.uk/copyright [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Intellectual Property Office (2019) Intellectual Property: Copyright [online] https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyright [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
NatureClip: Free Stock Footage. (2014) Silent Forest - Free HD Background [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjRn4Eo2hZM&fbclid=IwAR01NdiqbRdhwWFGrTvITHMBOC1bV7PXUTtubZxNYNHeEESRuHDJIYDmbUw [Accessed on 7 May 2019]
Shaddim (2016) Creative Commons Licence Spectrum [online] Image taken from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Creative_commons_license_spectrum.svg [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
UK Copyright Service (2017) Fact sheet P-01: UK Copyright Law [online] https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
UK Copyright Service (2017) The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 [online] Image taken from: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary [Accessed on 20 April 2019]
Video Game Ambience Asmr (2018) Video Game Ambience Asmr - (Homefront Revolution) Rainy Post Apocalyptic Alleyway [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R14nb32v14E&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=15&t=383s [Accessed on 7 May 2019]