Tag: Copyright

Categories
Copyright

Libraries and Archives Copyright Exceptions

Libraries and Archives Copyright Exceptions(Photo credits: Here’s Kate)

The CDPA 1988 includes a number of defences for libraries and archives. The demands made for public libraries for copying documents in their possession will not usually be covered by the fair dealing provisions and may not protect the librarian. Other defences are available for the preservation of cultural documents that require disposition in appropriate archives.

All the relevant defences under this heading apply only to prescribed non-profit libraries.

  1. Sections 38 and 39 permit libraries to copy literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic works upon the request of individuals for their research or private study. Section 38 regulates the request for copying articles from a periodical, while Section 39 regulates the request for copying whole or part of a published edition.
  2. Section 40A permits libraries to lend works to the public without infringing copyright as long as the book is eligible within the public lending right scheme. Section 40A(2) permits libraries to lend works to another non-profit library without infringing copyright (regardless of public licensing scheme).
  3. Section 41 permits libraries to make a copy of a periodical article, or whole or part of a published edition of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work in order to supply another prescribed library.
  4. Section 42 permits libraries to make copies to preserve or replace material in libraries main collection. (Provided that purchase of a replacement is not reasonably practical).
  5. Section 43 permits libraries and archives to copy certain unpublished works. (In many cases unpublished works of historical or literary interest have been deposited with libraries or other institutions, and it may be in the general public interest that they should eventually be published – {Copinger})
  6. Section 44 permits a designated body to copy an article of cultural or historical importance in situations where deposit of such work as a condition for export.
Categories
Copyright

Public Administration Copyright Exception

Public Administration Copyright Exceptions(Photo credits: vgm8383)

The CDPA 1988 contains the following copyright exceptions to facilitate a number of activities which might be carried in relation to copyright works by the public authority in normal course of public administrative:

  • Section 45 deems anything done for the purpose of parliamentary or judicial proceedings not to be an infringement of copyright. The reporting of such proceedings is also deemed not to be an infringement of copyright.
  • Section 46 deems anything done in pursuance of a Royal Commission or a statutory inquiry not to be an infringement of copyright. The reporting of such inquiry is also deemed not to an infringement of copyright.
  • Section 47 establishes a number of defences to enable copying material open to public inspection or are on a public register such as a patent register.
  • Section 48 deems anything communicated to the Crown in the course of public proceedings not to be an infringement of copyright.
  • Section 49 deems copying works found in public records not to an infringement of copyright.
  • Section 50 deems any act authorised by an act of parliament not to be an infringement of copyright.
Categories
Copyright

Copyright Exceptions for the Visually or Aurally Impaired

Copyright Exceptions for the Visually Impaired
The CDPA 1988 provides a number of exceptions against copyright infringement in the UK to facilitate the availability of accessible works to persons who are visually or aurally impaired.

Section 31A allows a visually impaired person to make an accessible copy of a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work or a published edition.

An ‘accessible copy’ is a copy that gives the visually impaired person an improved access to the work. For example, a digital copy that could be read on a computer using screen reading technology.

A visually impaired person is widely defined in the CDPA to include persons who are physically disabled and cannot flip the pages of a book.

This exception does not apply if there are accessible copies which are commercially available.

Section 31B enables an educational establishment, or a not for profit body, to make and supply accessible copies of literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work or published editions for visually impaired persons. Again, this exception does not apply if there accessible copies are commercially available.

In relation to those with hearing problems, Section 74 allows a designated body to copies of broadcast to provide subtitled or modified copies of it to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or physically or mentally handicapped in another way. The designated body can also issue and lend these copies without infringing copyright.

Categories
Copyright

Educational Exceptions for Copyright Infringement

Education Exceptions to Copyright(Photo credits: Thomas Favre-Bulle)

There are a number of exceptions for copyright in the UK under the CDPA 1988, these defences vary in scope and have different requirements.

  • Copying for the purpose of instruction and examination

Section 32(1) provides a defence against copyright infringement for copying literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic works, carried out for educational purposes if it was carried in the course of, or in preparation for, instruction. There are four conditions for this defence to stand:

  1. Copying must be done by a person either giving or receiving the instruction.
  2. The instruction must be for a non-commercial purpose.
  3. Copying must not be done by means of a reprographic process.
  4. Copying must be accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment.

This defence can be used for published or unpublished works.

Section 32A has a similar defence which can be used for non-commercial or commercial purposes, as long as the following conditions are satisfied:

  1. The work copied is already available to the public.
  2. Copying must be done by a person either giving or receiving the instruction.
  3. The copying is fair dealing.
  4. Copying must not be done by means of a reprographic process.
  5. Copying must be accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment.

Both of these defences have a very limited effect due to the requirement for the copying to be made through non-reprographic means (Bently). The definition of ‘reprographic’ is found in CDPA Section 30 (1A) and it includes digital copying. The exception is meant to primarily allow handwritten copying to be done and not much else.

Section 32(2) provides a defence for film-making instruction by allowing copying sound recording, film, broadcast when making a film or a film soundtrack in the course of, or in preparation, for instruction in the field of making film or film sound tracks.

There are three conditions for this defence to stand:

  1. The copying must be carried out by a person either giving o receiving the instruction.
  2. Copying is accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment.
  3. The instruction is carried out for a non-commercial purpose.

Finally, Section 32(3) provides a defence for examinations, in that anything done by way of setting the questions, communicating the questions to the candidates or answering the questions, will not infringe copyright.

  • Copying for Creating Anthologies And Collections

Section 33 provides a defence for copying short passages from published literary or dramatic works if included in a collection that is intended for use in an educational establishment.

There are three conditions for this defence to stand:

  1. The collection consists mainly of material in which no copyright subsists.
  2. The inclusion is accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment.
  3. The inclusion does not involve more than 2 excerpts from copyright works of the same author in collections published by the same publisher over any period of five years.

There is no clear definition of what short is, but if it was insubstantial then it won’t be considered as an infringement for a defence to be even necessary (Bainbridge). The requirement for cap on the number of excerpts and the period of publication is also a very restrictive requirement (Bently).

  • Performing, Playing, or Showing Works in an Educational Institute

Section 34(1) provides a defence for performing, playing, or showing literary, dramatic, or musical works by deeming the act not a public performance as long as it satisfies the following conditions:

  1. The performance is made before an audience of teachers and students at an educational institute.
  2. The performance is carried out by a teacher, pupil, or any other person for the purpose of instruction.

This means that performance by anyone before students in a drama class would benefit from the defence, but not before an audience of parents as parents are not connected to the activities of an educational establishment.

Section 34(2) provides a defence for displaying a film before students for the purpose of instruction. This defence cannot be used though by film student societies as the display would be made for fun and not education (Bently).

  • Recording of Broadcasts by an Educational Institute

Section 35 provides a defence against copyright infringement for educational establishments to make a recording of a broadcast, or copy such a recording, for educational purposes of that establishment as long as the following conditions are satisfied:

  • There is no appropriate licensing scheme.
  • Copying is accompanied by sufficient acknowledgment.
  • The educational purposes are are non-commercial.

Bently states that this defence is of no significant effect as most educational establishments  have entered into a number of relevant certified licensing schemes.

  • Reprographic Copying

Section 36 provides a defence against copyright infringement for the reprographic copying of literary, dramatic, or musical works by educational institutes as long as the following conditions are satisfied:

  • Copying does not exceed 1% of the work per quarter of year.
  • Copying is made for non-commercial instruction purposes.
  • Sufficient acknowledgment is made as long as it is not practically impossible.
  • There are no licensing schemes available.

Bently states that this defence has a limited effect due to the existence of licensing agreements. Bainbridge finds the defence pointless as he doesn’t consider copying less than 1% to be a substantial part of the work and therefore that action would not be considered as copyright infringement anyway. Bainbridge cites Hawkes & Son (London) Ltd v Paramount Film Services Ltd [1934] as a case indicating the difference between a substantial and insubstantial part of a copyright work.

  • Lending of Copies

Section 36A provides a defence allowing educational institutes to lend copies of copyright works.

Categories
Copyright

Incidental Inclusion of Copyright Works

Incidental Inclusion
Section 31(1) of CPDA in the UK provides an exception for copyright infringement when a copyright work is incidentally included in the work of another. This exception is necessary for photographers, film makers, painters, and the like, when creating works that would incidentally show other copyright works. Without this exception it would be very difficult to, for example, prepare a film as it would necessary to avoid the chance for the inclusion of copyright works.

The meaning of “incidental” was explored in a number of cases such as IPC Magazine Ltd v MGN Ltd [1998] where a commercial for a new tabloid attachment showed a cover of another magazine. The court said that “incidental” means “casual, inessential, subordinate, or merely background”, which was not the case here, leading the inclusion not to be considered incidental and therefore infringing.

The court also held that the term “incidental” does not include the situation where the work is integral to the work. In the case of Football Association Premier League Ltd v Panini UK [2004] the defendant distributed cards with images of football players showing their club strips and badges of their football clubs. The court in this case rejected the defence of incidental inclusion stating that it was artificial to test the “incidentality” of the inclusion by artistic consideration where the purpose of the inclusion was commercial as the cards would not have been of the same commercial value had the players not been pictured in their club strips.

For the music and spoken or sung words, the inclusion will not be incidental it was deliberate. However, the same requirement for the inclusion not to be deliberate does not exist for other works.

This exception has a small scope, but is necessary in order to allow others to create without fear of copyright infringement of all works around us.

Categories
Copyright

Fair Dealing Exceptions in UK Copyright Law

Fair Dealing - UK - Copyright Law(Photo credits: PunkJr)

Fair dealing is one of the permitted uses in UK Copyright Law that allow a person to carry out certain acts that would have otherwise been considered as an infringement if it wasn’t for the exceptions of fair dealing. The fair dealing exceptions are found in Sections 29 and 30 of the CDPA 1998.

In the UK, there are three fair dealing exceptions provided by the CDPA:

  1. Fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study. (Section 29(1))
  2. Fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review. (Section 30(1))
  3. Fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events. (Section 30(2))

It must be noted that the fair dealing exceptions in the UK are very specific exceptions that relate only to the fair use of copyright works ONLY for the specific purposes explicitly mentioned in the CDPA. Unlike the US, where the fair use exception is general exception which the court can hold as a defence for the use of the copyright for ANY purpose as long as the use is fair. The same concept does not exist in UK law as fair dealing only applies to the specific purposes mentioned (Bently). There are obviously other exceptions for other purposes that do not involve the fair dealing concept. These will be discussed in future posts.

The purposes mentioned earlier can operate as a defence for copyright infringement only in circumstances where the copying was fair. The court has established that this is a question of degree and impression. A number of factors may be taken into consideration depending on the facts of the case and the work in question. Such factors include whether or not the work is published or unpublished, how the work was obtained, the amount copied, the use made of the work, the movies for this copying, the consequences to the copying, whether or not the same purpose could be achieved through other methods, and whether or not the original author was acknowledged.

In the case of Hubbard v Vospar [1972] 2 QB 84, Lord Denning said:

“It is impossible to define what is fair dealing. It must be a question of degree. You must consider first the number and extent of the quotations and extracts. Are they altogether too many and too long to be fair? Then you must consider the use made of them. If they are used as a basis for comment, criticism or review, that may be a fair dealing. If they are used to convey the same information as the author, for a rival purpose, that may be unfair. Next, you must consider the proportions. To take long extracts and attach short comments may be unfair. But, short extracts and long comments may be fair. Other considerations may come to mind also. But, after all is said and done, it must be a matter of impression. As with fair comment in the law of libel, so with fair dealing in the law of copyright. The tribunal of fact must decide.”

There are also additional requirements for each purpose. For fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, the purpose must be non-commercial research or private study.  The term ‘private study’ is defined in Section 178 and it doesn’t include studying that involves a direct or indirect commercial purpose. The defence only applies when the work in question is literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic. It also applies to typographical formats of published works. The exception does not apply to broadcasts, sound recordings or film. The defence will also only apply where there is sufficient acknowledgment.

Fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review can only be used as a successful exception is the copying was made in relation to a work that is published in the sense that it was previously made available to the public. The section of the work copied must be directly relevant to the review. The case of Time Warner Entertainment Ltd v Channel 4 Television Corporation Plc illustrated that this test is not very onerous. The case involved the use of extracts from a film amounting to 12 minutes or 8% of the film in a 30 minute show. The court held that there is no required format for the program to be held as one relating to a review, that it can extent to ideas in the work, and its social and moral consequences. (Another case is Pro Sieban Media A.G. v Carlton U.K. Television Ltd).

The defence recognizes the value of criticism in society and acknowledges the fact that a person needs to copy some of the work to critique it. This defence also prevents authors from using copyright to control the reviews of their work and what parts of the work may or may not be used in the review. (Bently)

The final fair dealing defence is fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events. This defence can be used with any work,  except photographs, as long as sufficient acknowledgment is made. No acknowledgment is required for sound recording, film, or broadcast when this would be impossible or impractical. In the case of Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd v Marks & Spencer plc (1999), Lightman J stated that the this defence aims to achieve a balance between the protection of the rights of authors and the wider public interest which includes free speech, he consequently took the view that reporting of current events was a wide exception of indefinite scope that should be interpreted liberally (Murdie, Intellectual Property Law, page 67). {However, in this actual case, the redistribution of photocopied snippets of newspapers went beyond the exception}.

Categories
Copyright

Copyright Exceptions in Oman

Official Gazette
The exceptions to copyright vary from one country to another. In Oman, the permitted uses of copyright works are expressed in Chapter 5 of Royal Decree 65/2008.

First of all, unlike the USA, and more like the UK, there is no general exception of fair use in Oman. The list of copyright exceptions is an exhaustive list found in Article 20 of the Decree.

All of the exceptions of copyright in Oman require acknowledging the author and that the use does not impact on the normal use of the works or unreasonably harms the interests of the author.

There are seven exception in Article 20:

  1. Copying segments of a work available to the public for purposes of review, illustration, or criticism.
  2. Using the work in the family domain or for students inside an educational institute for purposes of education. The use must not be directly or indirectly paid-for.
  3. Creating a single copy of the work for archiving purposes by the designated authorities, OR by educational institutes as long as (a) copying is made for a published article or a short work for fulfilling the needs of an individual researcher, OR (b) copying is made for the purpose of protecting the original copy of the work or replacing a defective copy.
  4. Copying or broadcasting segments from articles published in daily newspapers or periodical about current events as long as original publisher has no exclusive right over the time of publishing, and the copying was made by the press.
  5. Copyright program related exceptions: (1) copying for the necessary operation of the program, (2) creating a single backup copy in case the original is damaged or lost, (3) creating a copy for the purposes of porting the program to another system or language as long as the ported copy is used by the owner of the original copy.
  6. The public performance of a dramatic or musical work in religious events or face to face teaching inside educational institutes. (Both cases must no be made for direct or indirect gain).
  7. Creating a temporary copying by broadcasting agencies for use in their programs as long as they have the right to broadcast and as long as the temporary copy is destroyed after a period of 6 months.

The exceptions in Omani law are very badly drafted and are not very clear. The 4th exception on reporting of current events does not make sense because it indicates that you can only copy as long as the person you are copying from has no right to publish. The exception is also only available for ‘the press’, which is not defined, but is very unlikely to extent to bloggers or those who contribute on online discussion boards. The exceptions also do not talk about copying photographs or videos for the purposes of reporting current events and only talks about ‘segments of articles’ – which in Arabic means ‘text’ and does not necessarily include non-textual content.

Categories
Copyright

Copyright Exceptions

Copyright Exceptions
Just the same way the grant of copyright is justified as a form of reward, incentive, and a natural right of those who create original works. The public has the right for a number of different copyright exceptions which allow a person to copy protected works without acquiring the owner of the copyright work without infringing copyright.

The scope and extent of these exceptions vary. Bently and Sherman state that this is a reflection of the variety of purposes which these exceptions serve.

Some exceptions to copyright are meant to promote and encourage the creation of new original works, especially where copying is not identical and is transformative.

Other exceptions are established to solve possible market failures that could arise in situations where the use is too nominal leading the cost of any transaction to establish an agreement between the copyright owner and the person wishing to use the work uneconomical. This can be seen in the exceptions related to subtitling (s74 CDPA) and recording of broadcast by educational institutions (s35 CDPA).

Copyright exceptions are also needed to protect other non-copyright public interests such as privacy (e.g. private study (s29)) and freedom of expression (e.g. criticism and review).

They are also used to prevent monopolies of intellectual works from being abused. (e.g. decompilation of computer programs s50B and retransmission of cable programs s73).

These exceptions are necessary for preserving material of cultural value (e.g. exceptions relating to folksongs s61 and archiving exceptions s75).

Finally, some exceptions encourages collecting licenses. (e.g. compulsory licensing of lending of works s66).

Categories
Copyright

Introduction to Copyright

Copyright(Image credits: PungoM)

Copyright is a right granted by the state for creators of original qualifying works to prevent others from carrying out certain activities in relation to these works. Copyright does not protect the idea behind created works, but the expression of that idea in the work.

In the United Kingdom Copyright is regulated by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. In Oman, copyright is regulated by the Copyright Law 65/2008. The UK and Oman are both members of the Berne Convention, which grants requires members to grant copyright protection automatically upon the creation of the work without requiring the author to fulfill any formalities such as registration or deposit. Almost all countries in the world are members of the Berne Convention. Any work created in any of these members or by a national of any of these members will have his work protected in all other member states.

This means that ANY thing you create, like writing a blog post or taking a photograph using your mobile phone is protected by copyright. The period for copyright protection for most works extends for the life of the author plus 70 years after his death.

Copyright is NOT grant the author an absolute monopoly over the use of copyright work. It only regulates a number of activities related to the work, in the UK, these include copying (whether in whole or in substantial amount), issuing copies, performing in public, broadcasting, making adaptations (including translation), and renting out certain works such as computer programs, films, and sound recordings. Carrying out any of the activities cannot be legitimately done without acquiring the conset of the copyright owner. Though originally meant to be an exhaustive list of activities, as we consume today most of our media electornically, any use of digital works requires creating a copy of the work temporary or permenantly on the computer to process and consume that work. However, the law provides an exception for using digital media to allow users to copy works on their computer as long as they do it to be able to carry out the intended use of the copyright work.

A further limitation to the control of the author of his work is imposed through a number of limitations for permitted uses provided for in the law. In the UK these include fair dealing for purposes of research and private study; and fair dealing for the purposes of criticism, review, and news reporting (provided that sufficient acknowledgement of the work is made); incidental inclusion of the work in others; activities done for instruction or examination; the creation of anthologies for educational use; playing, showing or performing in an educational establishment; recording of broadcasts by educational establishments; reprographic copying that does not exceed 1% of the work; copying by libraries and archives for purposes of preservation;  copying for purposes of public administration (e.g. by courts); and a number of lawful uses of computer programs and databases.

The existence of copyright law is justified on a number of ethical and economic grounds. Many believe that ethically an author of any work has a natural right or a human right over the product of his labour. Economically, it is a believed that the grant of this protection operates an incentive which is capable of driving people to create more. It is also essential to have copyright to protect the investment made in the creation of works that couldn’t be funded if it wasn’t for the ability to have these works exclusively exhausted through the protection of copyright (competitors easily copy-market failure?). It is also believed that it is fair to reward authors for the effort they expended in creating a work and then giving it to the public.

Categories
Copyright

The Problem with DRM

Digital Rights Management or DRM are tools used by distributors of digital media to ensure to control the way in which their music, video, and other digital goods are used and distributed. The majority of countries, including Oman, make it a criminal offense to disable DRM, to manufacture or import tools that disable DRM, or to share information to enable others to disable DRM.
Though not strictly speaking an actual substance of copyright, DRM offences are placed in copyright legislation due to their usage in that field. Content distributors use DRM to enforce their copyright by locking down their digital goods. For example, when you download a ringtone from your mobile operator service directly, that ringtone will be equipped with DRM that will not allow you to forward this ringtone to anybody else. If you purchase a DVD, you will not be able to create a copy of it using any legal software in the market. If you rent a video from iTunes, you will not be able to copy that video onto any other machine and you will have a very limited time to watch it after which the video will stop working.

Due to the ease at which copyright work can be copied and distributed over the Internet, one of the industry’s responses to enforce their copyright was the introduction of newer and newer DRM technologies. By using DRM content owners can have almost complete control over the use of the copyright work and will ensure that it is not copied or duplicated easy.

DRM has also contributed to the creation of new business models and services that would not have existed otherwise, for example, it would be impossible to have a legally cheap music rental services such as Napster if it wasn’t for DRM.

The available of DRM also helps the regulation of content through different territories for the protection of children and society when moral values and tolerance of sexual and violent content varies from one distinction to the other as DRM makes it difficult to play American movies in Europe).

However, for the greatest part, most people think that DRM is a bad thing. Starting from the top, there is no evidence that using DRM actually reduces piracy. Steve Jobs himself said in 2007 and DRM does not work. The nature of digital goods makes it impossible to lock down the ability to copy a work because by definition that data must be unlocked to be used and therefore it will always be possible to record and copy that data, whether it digital or analogue format, and then redistribute it. DRM targets the wrong people, people who will pay for it are not the pirates. It is demeaning because it makes every single one of us a suspect of copyright infringement.

A more problematic area of DRM is that it does not only stop illegal copying, but legal copying as well. Copyright is not an absolute right, but one which is supposed to balance the interests of society against those of the author. The collection of these legal copying instances are called in the US “Fair Use” and in Europe “Fair Dealing”. In Oman, these are called “Free Uses” and are specified in Article 20 of the Copyright Law 65/2008. A simple example of these rights are the right to make a single backup copy under Article 20(5). When DRM is used to protect a copyright work, then breaking the protection to create a copy would constitute a criminal offense regardless of whether the DRM was removed to create a legitimate backup copy.

This example could also be illustrated in the case of DVD playback on the Linux OS, no Linux OS has the license to play DVD movies on it, but Article 20(5) allows the modification of a copyright work in order to make a work compatible with another operating system, however, due to the fact that DVD movies are protected by CSS DRM, it will not be possible to make use the format shifting exception to play the DVD on Linux and any attempt to create a tool to play DVDs on Linux, or use one, would constitute a criminal offense under Article 40 of the Copyright Law.

That basically renders all the exceptions of copyright protection pointless as the majority of copyright works can now be DRMed, whether there was or wasn’t a point for using this protection. That obviously cannot be right, as copyright was never meant to grant such a power to content makers to control the way we use content we legally purchased. No legislator anywhere made the conscious decision to introduce such stringent rules, but this change in the way copyright operates was a result in the change of technology, for which copyright law was modified in the WRONG way “adapt” to it.

Not only does DRM not allow for free use exceptions, but it does not take regard of even works in the public domain for which no copyright subsists at all as a protection for DRM is granted whether or not the content it actually protects is in copyright or not.

DRM also poses a number of privacy issues, as at some instances personal data, such as names and credit card details, might be required to be submitted before the digital product is consumed. DRM can also be used to track the way and frequency at which the product is used. DRM proved to also be a possible cause of serious security risk to user computers as was the case in the Sony rootkit music CD fiasco.

The complex structure of today’s market and the way different tools and required to consume media, all make it possible for DRM to be used to affect the secondary market, as content providers may control the way products are played (e.g. DVDs). This could have an impact on competition and may stifle innovation as new technologies cannot be introduced if all current media is locked down to a specific DRM that cannot be legally broken or adapted without the permission of the owner.

The problems with DRM are international, the majority of modern copyright legislation including the US, Japan, and UK all have similar provisions against the circumvention of DRM. The laws in Oman are just as bad, especially as the DRM provisions were introduced in response to comply with the requirements of Article 15.4 of the Free Trade Agreement with the US. Any attempt to remove or amend the bad DRM provisions in Oman could render us in breach of our obligations under the FTA. Our only solace is that the situation in the US (and all other countries that signed an FTA with the US) is just as bad, but that does not really solve the problem.

Luckily, more and more companies seem to know that DRM is not the solution to the problem, iTunes announced a couple of months ago that it will make its entire music catalog without DRM, Amazon has always been so since the day it launched its online music store.

But now having DRM free content seems like a privilege and not a right. An international movement would have take place for the law to change that position.