Copyright - this is my work do not copy :)

Finally after spending nearly 2 hours deleting the images that made my blog look interesting :( , I can now go through why this had to be done after learning about copyright and how it is important if you are working for a big company not to use other peoples images.

Any work that is produced by you is your work and should not be copied or used by anyone else unless you give them permission. Novels are protected by copyright for 70 years whereas art, music etc is only protected for 50 years. Your work can;

1. Be licensed - you keep ownership of it however can be credited when people use it.
2. Assign your copyright- you sell your work entirely so that you no longer own it.

It needs to be added that as we are students at University, any work that we produce for WINOL or assignments belongs to the University. This is reinforced by signing a letter which states that the Uni can use our work to make money from it if they needed to. As we are all potential Journalists it was also pointed out by Chris that when working for the BBC, any work produced is explicit and belongs to the BBC as you are on a salary to get paid to produce work that will sell.

There is a way that work can be borrowed which is known as 'fair dealing' or 'lifting' in terms of tabloid jargon. This allows facts of a story to be repeated but does not include interviews or images that belong to a specific person. There is also no copyright in 'ideas' so if your friend has had a brilliant idea for a film or book now is the best time to take it and produce it if you think it will be worth the money (and losing a friend.)

Fair Dealing



If you want to use someones work for example to review it, there is a way in which you can borrow their work as long as the 3 steps are followed.

1. Package a review with fair dealing (this means make it obvious you are reviewing the product and not using it as your own work.)
2. Brief - the work you are using if a film should only be a snippet or in the case of images make them small.
3. The source must be credited in large letters so people know it is not your work.
4. Availability - must be mentioned where you can buy the product how much it is etc.

If these steps are all followed you should have a defense under the copyright act, however to avoid being sued the best option is to have everything as your own work so it is then your own copyright. If you are using media such as photocopying a book for private research or for criticism or reporting it is legal as long as you state that it is not your work and follow the steps for fair dealing.

As it has just been Halloween I am sure most of you have lots of pictures of your creative pumpkins, however this image is MINE as I took it and it is my work as I am the one who decorated these pumpkins. This image has copyright to me and should not be used by anyone else unless I give them permission to or they pay me to assign my copyright. It may be used if the points for 'fair dealing' are covered however I dont think this would be possible with such an obscure image of  two pumpkins sitting on a wall!