Copyright Aid

Hi James, Following on from your posting in October 2019, I believe you are based in the UK and that any sales of your prints would be from the UK. Therefore I don't think you can rely on the Bridgeman decision as that occurred in the USA (the Southern District of New York to be precise). We haven't...

Hi Kfg

Yes, you should be fine doing this. Check some of the other threads here where we discuss using print fabrics. Much the same principles apply to wrapping paper.

Hi Linda and Paul, There are no copyright implications in what you want to do because you are not copying anything, and something called the doctrine of exhaustion means that a copyright owner has no right to prevent the onward distribution of a work of theirs which has been legally acquired. The on...

Hi Jac, There are two separate parts of intellectual property law we need to consider here. The first is trade mark law. A trade mark like the word Cadburys (and indeed roughly 1000 other word and figurative marks owned by Cadbury Ltd UK, including at one time*, the purple colour associated with Cad...

Hi Mr Punch, Titles of books or songs are usually treated as not being subject to copyright because they are either too short* (say, fewer than 6 words) or unoriginal, or both. So on that basis I don't think there is any risk in using song titles in this way, and because this is not fair dealing you...

Hi zxzoomy, Yes, copyright can be inherited and follows the normal rules on inheritance. So for instance a person can bequeath his/her copyright to a named individual in their will, or if no such bequest is made, then the copyright forms part of the main residual estate and passes to the main benefi...

Hi Ian, Welcome to the forums. It is less likely that copyright will be an issue since the shape of practical objects is usually not protected by copyright. There is one exception which I will cover at the end. The main right which might come into play is design right. This comes in two main varieti...

Hi zxzoomy, We need to differentiate between copyright in the photograph and copyright in the published edition. Let's do that in reverse order. UK copyright law gives a special form of copyright to the publisher of the first edition of a typographical layout. You can find the details about this in ...

Hi Helen, I'm sorry to hear you have had no luck with contacting the barrister Christopher Semken. I believe that going through his old chambers still presents the best chance of contacting him. Try phoning again and ask to speak to Chambers Manager Kerry McLean. If you can speak to Mr McLean, expla...

Tom, just a quick follow-up on my last posting, since I can see that this topic is important to you. One of the problems we have with the general issue of quotation per se is that it is new (incorporated into UK law in 2014) and the boundaries of this specific topic have not been tested in the court...

Hi Tom, I'm not sure how much reliance one can put on what publishers think is required. The law certainly doesn't consider prominence as a factor in deciding whether something is fair dealing or not. Equally, word count is also irrelevant (despite what I know some publishers like to maintain). What...

Hi teepee, I don't think putting a quotation in a box or giving any other sort of prominence alters the fair dealing exception. The reason for quoting someone else's words is generally because they have said something profound or informative, and the reason we credit the author is to give the words ...

Hi pilax, You are absolutely right to be confused! While my previous answer was correct as far as it went, it did not go far enough. I completely neglected to add the part you quoted about the effect of the EU Term Directive. As you have identified, this radically altered the position for any photog...

Hi pilax, Most photographs taken in the UK before 1 June 1957 would have been subject to the 1911 Copyright Act, and specifically section 21 of that Act which said: 21 Provisions as to photographs The term for which copyright shall subsist in photographs shall be fifty years from the making of the o...

Hi nortski, There are two aspects to this. Firstly there is no problem with representing real people in either 2D or 3D provided that it is clear (as I am sure it would be in your case) that they are not endorsing the product. This situation is unlike that which occurs in several other countries, pa...