Copyright expert Graham Cornish provides answers to ten tricky copyright questions in this presentation.

1. 10 COPYRIGHT CONUNDRUMS CLARIFIED

3. A. Not entirely.
If two people create the same thing
independently of each other and
without actually copying what the
other person wrote or made (e.g. two
people standing in exactly the same
place taking a photograph), then both
can claim copyright in what they
created, even if they are identical.

5. A. Yes.
A logo is an artistic work and a
trademark may well be an artistic work
and/or a literary work as well. It is
possible for a trademark to go out of
copyright but still be a trademark as
trademarks can last forever.

7. A. The author - the person who wrote
the letter, not the archive that holds
the letter or the recipient of the letter.

9. A. No.
They must be qualifying libraries (those
that are publicly accessible, are the
libraries of an educational
establishment and is not owned by or
part of a body which is conducted for
profit).

11. A. Not under copyright law, but this is
an area where particular care needs to
be exercised. Although the person
taking the photograph (or their
employer if appropriate) owns the
copyright, the use of that photograph
may be restricted by other legal
considerations...

12. ...e.g using the image of a famous
person to promote a product can lead
to claims of loss of revenue because
the celebrity would have made a
charge for having their name used in
this way, even if the copyright in the
photograph is owned by the person
using it.

14. A. No.
Many items that will be copied using 3D
will not be protected by copyright e.g.
items of crockery such as mugs or DIY
materials such as screws or tools. They
are protected by either patent or
design right, if protected at all, and
making a single copy is not an
infringement.

16. A. The speaker owns the copyright in
what is said but there is no copyright in
the material until it has been recorded.
Once it has been recorded the speaker
owns the copyright in what has been
said, but the person making the
recording owns the copyright in the
sound recording as such.

18. A. Essentially it is the person who
transmits the programme if that
person has any responsibility for its
contents

20. A. No.
The exception for copying for private
use it to copyright, not database right,
and databases may not be copied for
personal use. There are rules that
enable some copying to take place but
not on the same scale as private
copying.

22. A. Yes. Anything that you create as an
individual and put up on any of these
sites, chatrooms or blogs is technically
your property.

23. For more information and answers to
851 other copyright questions, see the
fully up-to-date 6th edition of
Copyright: Interpreting the law for
libraries, archives and information
services

24. Find out more
information
including a free
sample chapter on
the Facet
Publishing website

25. Image credits
1. Flickr cc image: Folklore NullElf: burning copyright by Martin Fisch
2. Flickr cc image: Monopoly Thimble by Rich Brooks
3. Flickr cc image: Times Square, NYC by MK Feeney
4. Flickr cc image: Letter from Francestown, New Hampshire (USA) to
North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, February 1856 by John Atherton
5. Flickr cc image: Copyright (Washington, DC) by takomabibelot
6. Flickr cc image: Photographing the photographer by naixn
7. Flickr cc image: 3D Printer at the Fab Lab by Keith Kissel
8. Flickr cc image: Copyright graffiti by opensource.com
9. Flickr cc image: Broadcast Tower by Steve Beger
10. Flickr cc image: data.path Ryoji.Ikeda - 4 by r2hox
11. Flickr cc image: Copyright Symbols by Mike Seyfang