Copyright Service

Did you know that whenever you write a poem or story or even a paper for your class, or a drawing or other artwork, you automatically own the copyright to it. Copyright is a form of protection given to the authors or creators of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual works. What that means is that, as the author of the work, you alone have the right to do any of the following or to let others do any of the following:make copies of your workdistribute copies of your workperform your work publicly (such as for plays, film, dances or music)display your work publicly (such as for artwork, or stills from audiovisual works, or any material used on the Internet or television) andmake "derivative works" (including making modifications, adaptations or other new uses of a work, or translating the work to another media) In general, it is illegal for anyone to do any of the things listed above with a work created by you without your permission, but there are some exceptions and limitations to your rights. One major limitation is the doctrine of "Fair Use."Copyright law grants to copyright holders certain exclusive rights in relation to their works. They have the right to: copy a work, issue copies to the public, perform show or play it, make adaptations or translations. They also have the right to prevent: others communicating a work to the public by electronic transmission, e.g. broadcasting it or putting it on a website.others making available to the public a recording of a performance by electronic transmission, e.g. putting it on a website. Copyright holder(s) may grant permission or license anyone else to do these things, without affecting their ownership of the actual copyright in their work, e.g. an author may permit a television adaptation of their book to be made and broadcast - the copyright in the original book remains with the author and they may grant other such rights to other people. He law provides certain ways in which copyright works may be used without the need to first obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) - these include, fair dealing, library privilege, copying for examinations and copying for instruction. The University also holds a number of licences, e.g. CLA, NLA, ERA, which permit copyright works to be copied and used in various ways. Otherwise, written permission must first be obtained from a copyright holder before their work is used or copied. Infringing the rights of copyright holders may be a criminal offence and/or cause them to sue for damages. As a result of certain international treaties and conventions, works produced in other countries have the same copyright protection in the UK as those created here.