As a freelance writer, ideas are your bread and butter. Getting
a commission means revealing your idea for a great article to an
editor or someone else. There's no way around it, but how can
you prevent people from ripping you off? Here's what you need to
know about UK copyright law.
In the UK, copyright is an automatic and unregistered right.
That means there's no need to apply specially or fill in any
forms. Copyright takes effect as soon as certain work(this term
applies to all copyright protected material) are created and
there are nine types of work that enjoy this automatic
protection. These are literary work (including newspaper
articles), dramatic, musical, artistic (photos, drawings,
diagrams, maps etc), sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable
programmes and published editions of works. All of these are
known as intellectual property. Intellectual property is a bit
like real estate - it can be bought, sold, transferred and
inherited, though only with your written permission.
The key thing to remember as a writer is that ideas themselves
are not protected but the way ideas are expressed is protected.
So if you think of an idea for an article, that isn't protected;
when you write it, it is. It's the information you select and
the way you arrange that information that makes it unique.
In order for material to have copyright protection it has to
result from independent intellectual effort. In other words, you
must have put some work into it. You'll need to be able to prove
this if challenged, so although it's not obligatory, you can
protect yourself by sending a copy of your work to yourself by
recorded delivery and leaving it unopened. Recorded delivery
post is date stamped so you'll be able to prove that your work
existed on a particular date.
Copyright lasts for the duration of the author's life plus 70
years for literary, dramatic or musical works. Different periods
apply for films (70 years after the last to die of the director,
screenplay authors and musical director), sound recordings (50
years) and published editions (25 years). People are allowed to
publish excerpts from your copyrighted work for the purpose of
news, review or criticism. This is known as fair dealing. Works
used in this way should be properly acknowledged.
When you give someone the right to publish your work, you are
assigning that right temporarily (a bit like renting out your
house). As a writer, you'll want to avoid signing away any of
your rights permanently. Instead, be clear on what rights you
are assigning. First serial rights are normal. This gives the
publisher the right to publish your material first in whatever
country or region (for example, the UK or US) the rights apply
to. Once the material has been published, all rights revert to
you. Some publishers will also request online rights and the
right to keep your work in an online archive. You'll want to
make sure these rights are for a limited period or are
non-exclusive, so you can make the most of your material.
A key term to be aware of is moral right. This is the right to
be credited as the author (have a byline) and to object to
alterations or errors which might damage your reputation (known
as derogatory treatment of your work). It also includes the
right not to have work falsely attributed to you. In other
words, no one should say you wrote something if you didn't.
So what do you do if someone tries to pass off something you've
written as their own work? If your copyright has been breached
you can take the infringer to court but beware. There are two
things that could damage your case. The first is if the person
commits innocent infringement, which means the person genuinely
didn't know you owned the copyright; the second is if you have
previously allowed someone to use copyrighted work without
complaint. This is known as acquiescence.
Summary So there you have it: the lowdown on UK copyright law.
In essence, freelance writers need to be aware that their
written work enjoys automatic copyright protection, that they
are entitled to be credited as the author of any work they
right, that they should only assign limited rights to their work
and that they have the right to sue if their copyright is
infringed.
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