Once someone’s idea has been physically expressed, such as a piece of music, copyright can protect the use of the work through legal right. In the UK our current copyright legislation is the ‘Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988’.

The laws within copyright lay out a framework of rules on how copyrighted work can be used. Not only does it set out the rights of the owner, but it also includes that responsibilities of people who want to use the work.

Copyright law exists to give people compensation for their time and effort. Without it, if an individual came up with an idea for an amazing new painting, someone could just photograph their work and then start mass-producing prints. This would therefore mean the painter would be much less able to make a living off their work, which would further discourage them from creating potential great art in the future.

An example of copyright working successfully would be in the music industry. This is because, despite changes in technology from vinyl to the internet copyright is a spur for artistic creativity, and allows the business of music to stay afloat, therefore allowing people who have a gift for writing, singing or producing to make a living, and subsequently allows their fans to enjoy the music.

Copyright will protect original works of authorship, including, literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. Some examples would be, novels, films, songs, computer software, poetry and architecture. However, copyright will not protect facts, systems or methods of operation (but it may protect the way these things are expressed).

Copyright laws give owners intellectual property rights for a term of life plus 70 years, therefore within this time frame no one else can use the owners work without permission.

If I was to use copyrighted material without permission in my film this would be classed as copyright infringement. This would mean that if I commercially profited for the use of the copyrighted material, I would have to pay the original owner monetary damages, and the court could prohibit me for further using the owners material without consent. In more extreme cases a judge could impound my film and give an order for it to be destroyed immediately.

However, I could possibly assert a defence excusing the unauthorised use of copyrighted material in certain situations, for example, if the copyrighted material fell under fair use which allows you to distribute copyrighted work without permission only for a limited purpose and to a limited extent.

To make sure I don’t infringe copyright law in my groups film, before planning to use someones material (such as a piece of music), I could check the public domain to see if something else is suitable for the use or even create something myself, instead of trying to use the copyright of another person. If, there is nothing else which is suitable I will have to find what is copyright protected in the work and then contact the copyright owner.

When in touch, I should tell them that I wish to use their piece of work in my film, and ask if I can. They may ask me to pay either attribution or royalties (or both) and then they can also place limitations on when and how I can use the material. Once I have permission to use the work, I must make sure to stay within the agreed boundaries, and if I deviate from the prior agreed terms, I could still initiate a copyright infringement claim.

Due to my groups film being a short film, with a very small budget, it means that it is very unlikely that we will use any copyrighted material or any other works that fall under IP regulation. This is mainly because of the fact that, if we chose to use something like music over our film which was copyrighted we would have to pay the copyright owner, which we probably wouldn’t be able to afford, and therefore it would be much easier just to use music from the public domain, or even create our own.

Also, despite only being in the early stages of film production, copyright law has meant that we must create our own original script as if we decided to base it upon existing work, the producer in our group would have to secure right to use the material before going forward.