Hello!
Wanting to confirm my understanding of the copyright status of BBC "talks" broadcasts before 1956. Since there was no copyright for the first publication, is it correct that any subsequent printings of the text of the talks in the Listener etc were also not copyright?
Thanks!
Paul
BBC radio before 1956
Re: BBC radio before 1956
Hi Paul,
The reason there was no copyright in the original speech broadcast is based on two things. Firstly broadcasts per se weren't recognised as 'works' at that point. and secondly, unless the programme was scripted or music, the broadcast work failed to gain copyright because any work needs to be fixed or recorded in a medium (see section 3(2) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988). Today a digital recording meets that criterion, but back then talks went out live and were frequently not recorded. However the script for something like a play or comedy show (the Goon Show for example) had scripts so they were protected as literary works, and of course all music tended to be notated as sheetmusic, irrespective of the fact that they were also broadcasts
However once the talk was transcribed for the Listener article, it was now fixed as a literary work and so it gained copyright. The author of the work would be the speaker, and so to determine the duration of copyright you would need to find out when they died and then add 50 years to the end of the year of death. If the result takes the end date to after 1 July 1995, the extension of the copyright term by a further 20 years would have automatically applies. As you can appreciate, virtually anything of this sort from the early 1950s will still be in copyright unless the speaker died before 1 January 1954.
The reason there was no copyright in the original speech broadcast is based on two things. Firstly broadcasts per se weren't recognised as 'works' at that point. and secondly, unless the programme was scripted or music, the broadcast work failed to gain copyright because any work needs to be fixed or recorded in a medium (see section 3(2) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988). Today a digital recording meets that criterion, but back then talks went out live and were frequently not recorded. However the script for something like a play or comedy show (the Goon Show for example) had scripts so they were protected as literary works, and of course all music tended to be notated as sheetmusic, irrespective of the fact that they were also broadcasts
However once the talk was transcribed for the Listener article, it was now fixed as a literary work and so it gained copyright. The author of the work would be the speaker, and so to determine the duration of copyright you would need to find out when they died and then add 50 years to the end of the year of death. If the result takes the end date to after 1 July 1995, the extension of the copyright term by a further 20 years would have automatically applies. As you can appreciate, virtually anything of this sort from the early 1950s will still be in copyright unless the speaker died before 1 January 1954.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007