Image Copyright & Intellectual Property
Using somebody else's intellectual property and how it can get you into hot water
Can I Use This Photograph on Social Media?
There can be serious consequences for posting / reposting or partly using an image to your personal or business social media accounts and websites without the right permissions.
It’s a simple enough question, but unfortunately isn’t quite a straight answer. Images are everywhere… In magazines, in shop windows, and online. With images being online, and being the prevent use in online marketing and sales as they induce clicks, likes, curiosity and share, over and above posts that don’t.
There is allot at stake too, copyright infringement and breaches of copyright can find your business in court with hefty fines for damages. Excuses like “We just didn’t know” or “But its on the internet” wont sit well with the court as a valid defence. Especially if it’s been a breach of copyright that you have carried out for commercial marketing. Sourcing these images for use in your social media isn’t always straight forward. And its always worth double checking and proceeding with caution, rather than ignoring and hoping for the best. As the latter choice could turn out to be very very costly indeed.
So first off…. What is Copyright?
Copyright protects you as a creative or artist with your work and stops others from using it without your permission.
You get copyright protection automatically - you don’t have to apply or pay a fee. There isn’t a register of copyright works in the UK.
You automatically get copyright protection when you create:
original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography
original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases
sound and music recordings
film and television recordings
broadcasts
the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works
You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have.
How copyright protects creative work
Copyright prevents people from:
copying your work
distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale
renting or lending copies of your work
performing, showing or playing your work in public
making an adaptation of your work
putting it on the internet
Copyright overseas
Your work could be protected by copyright in other countries through international agreements, for example the Berne Convention.
In most countries copyright lasts a minimum of life plus 50 years for most types of written, dramatic and artistic works, and at least 25 years for photographs. It can be different for other types of work.
Public Domain works…
The public domain consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. This is often misunderstood as Public Domain being used as an excuse when the image is just found online.
As examples, the works of William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by a country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes, and all computer software created before 1974. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain (see waiver); examples include reference implementations of cryptographic algorithms, and the image-processing software ImageJ (created by the National Institutes of Health). The term public domain is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, in which case use of the work is referred to as "under license" or "with permission".
Public domain work can very easily be found via the Public Domain register and though quickly confirming, you can gain the relevant information to know you are using the work safely under this bracket.
You can’t copy or use copyright material without permission. For example, you can’t buy a painting and then use copies of it for a book cover, or buy a CD and use a track from it in a film.
To use something protected by copyright you must either:
agree a licence with the owner to use it
buy or acquire the copyright
confirm that your intended use falls within the exceptions to copyright
Finding a copyright owner
A person can give permission if they are:
the person who made it (the creator), or their family or heirs
the creator’s employer, if it was created it as part of the creator’s job
a person who bought, acquired or licensed the rights
You may be able to find out who owns copyright from Writers, Artists and their copyright holders (WATCH).
If you can’t find out who the copyright owner is check if you need a licence to use the work.
Licensing
You must agree the terms of an agreement with the current owner to use all or part of copyright works.
The licence agreement may allow you to use it for one or more specified purposes and may apply only for a limited time or in specific places.
Without the license, any use of the work is copyright infringement , or in other words…. stealing.
Exclusive use
You’ll be the only person able to use something for the duration of the agreement.
This includes the copyright owner, who won’t be able to use it themselves while the agreement is in place.
Limited use
You’ll only be given permission to use something for one or more specific reasons, for example publishing a photograph in one edition of a magazine or using a song as the theme for one series of a TV show.
You need to agree another licence if you want to use the material for something else.
Creative Commons licence
Some copyright owners release work under a Creative Commons licence.
You must check what kind of use the licence allows.
Permitted use of copyright works
You may not need permission if you’re using a copyright work for the following reasons:
non-commercial research and private study
criticism, review and reporting current events
teaching in educational establishments
helping disabled people
recording for use at a later date
You may not need permission if you only want to use a ‘less than a substantial’ part of a copyright protected work. This is decided on a case by case basis.
Generally something won’t be less than a substantial part if it could be seen as an important part of the work, for example a frame from a film or the conclusions of a report.
