Images, sound and video

Who is likely to own the copyright?

• Photographs = photographer since 1989, or owner of negatives before that
• Databases = maker, or employer of maker
• Films = producer and principal director, but there will be separate copyrights in music, screenplay, dialogue etc.
• Broadcasts = person making broadcast, or employer
• Sound recordings = normally the producer has the rights to the recording, but performers, composers, and lyric writers may also have rights
• Multimedia productions = very complicated, could be writers, performers, producers, composers, choreographers etc.

How long does copyright last?

• Copyright is generally 70 years from the end of the year of death of the creator
• For sound recordings copyright is now generally 70 years from the end of the year of release.
• For broadcasts, 50 years from the end of the year in which it is first broadcast (but could be longer depending on the content of the broadcast).
• The typographical layout of printed works is usually protected for 25 years from the end of the year of publication. This applies to printed music as well.

Some sectors of activity have set up organisations to promote and protect the copyrights of their members, and to collect royalties. These are often the best places to begin an enquiry about copyright permissions.

• Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) - for artists and visual creators.
• PRS for Music - The Performing Right Society (PRS) deals with public performance and broadcast of musical works. 
• Phonographic Performance Limited - a music industry organisation collecting and distributing airplay and public performance royalties in the UK
• Music Publishers' Association (MPA) - deals with permissions to copy printed music.

If you want to re-use content from the internet, you need to be very sure about what you are allowed to do with it.  Sometimes it is hard to be sure what is OK.

If you are creating material yourself to publish on the internet, you will automatically be protected by standard copyright law. However, you may want to permit other people to use your material freely, you may want to permit certain uses but restrict others. or you may just want to be acknowledged for your work.

Creative Commons.org aims to help you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.  It's also a great way to find material you can use freely yourself.

• There are six different levels of Creative Commons license available, depending on what uses the creator wants to permit.
• The Creative Commons website helps you choose which option you would like, and creates a license showing the CC symbols appropriate to your choice  
• The most permissive choices are flagged up as being approved for "free cultural works".  This means they are the ones that can be most readily used, shared, and remixed by others, and go furthest toward creating a commons of freely reusable materials. They will also give you less protection of your rights, of course.

The box below shows the CC symbols that are combined in the licenses.