COPYRIGHT AND THE USE OF EXISTING RESOURCES
Copyright is an intellectual property right that protects the owner of a work from its unauthorised copying. Originally this protection was almost solely related to the (potential) loss of income. While this remains a strong justification it also relates to the moral rights of an author.
The categorisation of copyright as a 'property' demonstrates that copyright is something which belongs to someone, cannot be taken away without consent and cannot be abused without the possibility of legal action ensuing.
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 copyright applies to:
- original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works
- sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes
- the typographical arrangement of publications
Most research materials such as spreadsheets, publications, reports, computer programmes, etc. fall under literary work.
Who owns copyright?
The author or creator of a work initially owns copyright and this can be assumed as soon as the work exists in a recorded form. So copyright subsists in the typescript of a book before it is published. A Ph.D. student, undertaking a survey as part of the research process, will have created a questionnaire, gathered responses and created a dataset. The copyright owner of this dataset will be that researcher.
Often there is no single creator of a work. If a book has two authors, the copyright will, by default, be owned by both authors. If a research project has multiple investigators, the copyright is held by all the investigators. In a research project which focuses on the collection of interviews for qualitative data analysis, the individual interviewees will have copyright of their particular interviews.
Ownership of copyright can be sold and bequeathed and is unrelated to the ownership of an object. Generally, the 'transmission' of copyright does not affect its duration (see copyright details).
Copyright in academia
There are increasingly strong discussions in the academic community about whether or not the employer is the first owner of the copyright in a work made during the course of the employee's employment. Under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988 (ss11(2))the copyright owner is indeed the employer for work created under a contract, subject to "any agreement to the contrary". Many academic institutions waive copyright in research materials and publications and give ownership to the researchers. Researchers should check with their institutions whether their institution retains copyright, or waives it.
For further information on specific rules for database rights, moral rights, publications rights, copyright duration and fair dealing (which covers exceptions to copyright legislation when works are used for non-commercial research purposes) see copyright details.
