Copyright

Copyright is very important for anyone who produces any intellectual property and stops someone using your work and claiming it as their own. It is important to remember that copyright does not protect ideas, only physical work. For journalists it is important to remember who owns the copyright, if a piece of work was written by a freelance journalist then they own the copyright, and then if they sell the story to a news organisation they can retain the copyright. Whereas if a journalist works for a wage most of the time when they write a story or produce a broadcast the organisation that pays their wage will own the copyright for  that piece and can then sell it on and not have to give the creator any of the extra profits.  

Only certain work is protected by the laws of copyright and copyright can only protect an item for a certain length of time. “Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 copyright protects any literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical work, sound recordings, film, broadcast, or typographical arrangements” this is the definition of what copyright protects taken from Mcnae’s essential law for journalists. This restricts people from using any content that falls under there categories, which they did not make, unless they gain permission from the creator to use it. 

If someone uses content which is protected by copyright and they do not have permission from the creator then the owner can seek damages or prosecute the person who breached the copyright.  This can be a large fine; the maximum fine a magistrate can impose is £50,000. This is why it is important for journalists to know copyright laws so we don’t breach copyrights and get fined. 

There are several defences journalists have against claims of a breach in copyright; the main defence is fair dealing. Fair dealing means that a copyright can be breached if it is for the purpose of reporting current events, provided there is a fair acknowledgement of the author and provided the work has been made available to the public. Although this defence does not work with photographs, section 30 of the Copyright act excludes photographs from the defence of a fair dealing. This means that to use a picture you must get permission from the original photographer. 

If a copyrighted item is being reviewed or commented on thenthe reviewer is allowed to use pieces of the material to prove a point, as long as there is acknowledgement. This means that you can quote books, plays, films and broadcasts, which is why reviewers can use film clips in broadcasts without fear of infringement. The most important thing to remember with fair comment is that the work must be available to the public; this means that material that is not lawfully available to the public is still subject to copyright laws even if it could be viewed as fair dealing. This means that private letters and confidential material are always subject to copyright laws.

You cannot copyright the news; the facts in a news story are not subject to copyright claims. Any journalist can write a story about Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 yesterday, but they cannot take a quote from Steven Gerard about the match that was obtained by a journalist, because the copyright for that specific quote or interview belongs to the journalist or organisation. What a rival journalist can do is “lift” the quote and use it in their story. If they do this it must be clear in the story that the quote not exclusive to that journalist. This can be done by attributing the quote to a separate journalist or paper by saying “Steven Gerard told a newspaper or told reporters”.