CREATE & MANAGE DATA
COPYRIGHT
COPYRIGHT DETAILS
Copyright has time limits placed upon it. Databases have specific rights that are different to other material. Copyright law includes moral rights and publication rights.
Copyright duration
The duration of copyright depends on the type of work. The table
below is highly simplified.
| Type of work | Copyright duration |
|---|---|
| Literary and artistic works | 70 years from the end of the year of the death of creator |
| Sound recordings | 50 years from date of creation |
| Typographical arrangements | 25 years from date of publication |
| Crown Copyright | 50 years from date of publication or 125 years from date of creation |
Rights in databases are treated differently.
Database right
If information is structured in a database, the structure acquires
a database right, alongside the copyright in the content of the
database. Legally, a database is a collection of independent works
arranged in a systematic or methodical way.
A database may be protected by both copyright and database right.
For database right to apply, the database must be the result of
substantial intellectual investment in obtaining, verifying or
presenting the content. The database right is an automatic right
and protects databases against the unauthorised extraction and
re-use of the contents.
Database right are protected for 15 years from the date of
creation or publication. For some complex databases the structure
itself can be categorised as a literary work (even if its contents
are of a visual nature) and attract 70 years' copyright similar to
other literary material.
Moral rights
Besides copyright, the creator of a work also holds moral rights,
which cannot be transferred. Moral rights give the creator the
right to be identified as the author of a work. This right must be
asserted by the author in writing. If, for example, you use data
created by someone else who has asserted the moral right to be
identified as the author, you must identify this person within your
own work. This is usually taken to be scholarly good practice but
can be enforced legally.
Moral rights typically last the same length of time as copyright.
Unlike copyright they cannot be sold to another party but can be
waived by the author. They can also be bequeathed upon an author's
death.
Publication right
Publication right offers rights equivalent to
copyright to a person who publishes previously unpublished material
that has already fallen out of copyright. This right rewards the
creative effort employed in editing another research work. Creating
and publishing a database based on unpublished historical source
material which is not in copyright will give the creator a
publication right.
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COPYRIGHT AND SHARING DATA