5.3 Legislation relating to the use of ICT for storage, manipulation and access of information

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Data Protection Act
3. Copyright legislation
   1. Ownership and duration of copyright
   2. Copyright and the Internet
   3. Digital Rights Management (DRM)
   4. Digital watermarking
4. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Copyright legislation

Copyright legislation is UK-wide and a number of Statutory Instruments have been put in place to ensure that European Copyright Directives are enacted in the UK. The key Act is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which determines what is illegal and what is permissible.

The purpose of copyright is to ensure that the creator (person who holds the intellectual property right) or owner of the copyright can:

• derive any financial benefit relating to their material

• have control over the way in which their material is used.

Regular revisions of copyright legislation take place so information professionals must keep their knowledge up to date.

Copyright law is very complex but it is important that you have a sound knowledge of what is permissible and the role of library staff in enforcing copyright.

The Patent Office website at: www.patent.gov.uk/copy/legislation/copylaw.htm has a good summary of copyright issues. The information on the following pages is extracted from there and summarises the principal points.

Let's look first at Ownership and duration of copyright ...