Copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work (including a photograph) lasts until 70 years after the death of the author. The duration of copyright in a film is 70 years after the death of the last to survive of the principal director, the authors of the screenplay and dialogue, and the composer of any music specially created for the film. Sound recordings are generally protected for 50 years from the year of publication. Broadcasts are protected for 50 years and published editions are protected for 25 years. If a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or film for which the copyright has expired has never been made available to the public, it may be protected by publication right. This is granted automatically to the first person to make a relevant work or film available to the public within the European Economic Area, lasts for 25 years from the time of making available, and gives rights broadly similar to those given by copyright.
The general rule is that the author is the first owner of copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work. In the case of films, the principal director and the film producer are joint authors and first owners of copyright. The main exception is where a work or film is made in the course of employment, in which case the employer owns the copyright. The copyright in sound recordings, broadcasts and published editions generally belongs to the record producer, broadcaster or publisher.
Copyright and the Internet
Under UK law (the position in other countries may differ) copyright material sent over the Internet or stored on web servers will generally be protected in the same way as material in other media. So anyone wishing to put copyright material on the Internet, or further distribute or download such material that others have placed on the Internet, should ensure that they have the permission of the owners of rights in the material.
Generally, when you put your work on a web site, it is probably a good idea to mark each page of the web site with the international © mark followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication. In addition, you could include information on your web site about the extent to which you are content for others to use your copyright material without permission. Although material on a web site is protected by copyright in the same way as material in other media, you should bear in mind that web sites are accessible from all over the world and, if material on your web site is used without your permission, you would generally need to take action for copyright infringement where this use occurs.
Fair Use
Fair use is primarily intended to allow the use of copyright-protected works for commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education. However, fair use is not an exception to copyright compliance so much as it is a “legal defence.” That is, if you use a copyright-protected work and the copyright owner claims copyright infringement, you may be able to assert a defence of fair use, which you would then have to prove. Whether a certain reproduction or other use of a copyright-protected work is considered fair use is not specifically set out in the Copyright Act. As such, you must determine, based upon the factors in the Copyright Act, whether that particular act may be considered fair use.
Fair use considers:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit, educational purposes.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyright protected work as a whole.
- The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyright-protected work.
Data protections Act
The first Data Protection Act was introduced in 1984. This was replaced in 1998 by a new Data Protection Act, which changed the law to meet the requirements of the European Union.
The Data Protection Act gives rights to individuals about whom information is stored. Individuals may find out information about themselves, challenge it and claim compensation in certain circumstances. The Act places legal requirements on those who store and use personal data. They must let everyone know about their use of data and follow the data protection principles.
The data protection principles are requirements that data controllers must meet to comply with the Data Protection Act. These eight principles state that any personal data stored by a data controller shall:
- Be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully
- Be held and processed only for the lawful purposes described in the register entry
- Be used only for those purposes and only be disclosed to those people in the register entry
- Be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose for which they are held
- Be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
- Be held no longer than is necessary for the registered purpose
- Be surrounded by proper security
- Not be transferred outside of the European Economic Area unless the country that the data is being sent to has a suitable data protection law
The 1984 Act only covered data that was stored on a computer. The 1998 Act covers data that is stored either:
- on a computer, or,
- on paper in an organised filing system such as a card index or filing cabinet.
The Data Protection Act applies only to information, which relates to living individuals.
If your business holds customer details - on paper or/and on a computer - it is a legal requirement that you protect people's privacy by complying with the Data Protection legislation. This data extends beyond personal details (name, address, telephone number, etc) to information such as credit worthiness. Should you fail to comply with the Data Protection Act the consequences can be disastrous. Heavy fines will be issued and you may be permanently banned from obtaining and holding customer details. A knock on effect will see your customers lose confidence in you should news leak out.
The Data Protection Act 1998 came into force in 2000. It legislates for the control and protection personal data generally. The more stringent requirements of the Act do not apply to some kinds of healthcare research (e.g. research using anonymous unlinked data and some epidemiological research) because of an ‘exemption’ clause research in the Act. Adherence to this law and advice on compliance in the UK is monitored by the Information Commissioner. Personal information is all information about individuals, living or dead. For example medical records which are written or held on a computer system, images, recordings, information obtained from samples and opinions expressed about the individual.
Data Protection in Healthcare
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Personal data has a narrower definition and is more closely concerned with avoiding the possibility of identification. It is information about living people which in isolation or in combination with other data which may be available, may lead to the identification of the patient.
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Confidential information in the context of healthcare is information about oneself given on the explicit or implicit understanding that it will not be disclosed to others outside the patient’s care, without the patient’s consent. Both the law and patients assume that this is the case when personal information is disclosed as part of clinical care.
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Sensitive information refers to information about individuals which may have particularly deleterious effects if it is disclosed inappropriately. The Data Protection Act 1998 refers to ‘sensitive personal data’ as including all information about physical or mental health or condition, or sexual life.
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Coded data is not anonymous data. Identities are disguised by the code but the code can be easily decoded by those in control of the data. For example, an ‘alphanumeric code’ made up of a patients postcode/initials and date of birth is not anonymous. Informed consent from the participants is required for this situation (except in exceptional situations where the need is waived by applying to the Department of Health).
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Anonymous data is data which has been coded by others outside the research team, for example from a national database such as the Cancer Registry or a large pharmaceutical company. Permission for this data to be used in future research should be requested at the time of initial consent to registration or research.
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Linked Anonymous data can be decoded by the organisation supplying it to the researchers but not by the researchers themselves. For example a Care Organisation may need to link perhaps unexpected research data to a particular patient in the interests of their care. Informed consent from the patient is sometimes necessary when using linked anonymous data. The Research Ethics Committee should be consulted.
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Unlinked Anonymous data describes the situation where the link between the data and the person to whom it refers has been irreversibly broken. No one could use this data to identify a specific individual. Informed consent is not necessary for research which makes use of unlinked anonymous data.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 came into force on 29 August 1990 and specifies offences for attacks against computer systems or data. It provides protection for systems and data, attempting to maintain their confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The Act provides for three distinct offences:
Section 1 - Unauthorised access to computer material
It is an offence to cause a computer to perform any function with intent to secure unauthorised access to any program or data held in any computer (section 1a). It is necessary to prove that the access secured is unauthorised (section 1b), and the suspect knew that this was the case (section 1c).
This offence is commonly referred to as ‘hacking’ or ‘cracking’. It covers entering a computer system without permission having guessed or discovered another individual’s password, or having obtained it through the use of software tools.
Under section 17(2) of the Act access is gained to any program or data in a computer, if by causing a computer to perform any function the program or data: is altered or erased; copied or moved to any storage medium other than that in which it is held; is used; or is output from the computer in which it is held. The offence is punishable on conviction by a term of imprisonment up to six months.
Section 2 - Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate the commission of further offences
This offence is committed where a section 1 offence has been committed, with the intention of committing a further offence (any offence which may be punished by a term of imprisonment of five years or more) or facilitating the commission of a further offence. Even if it is not possible to prove the intent to commit the further offence the section 1 offence is still committed. The offence is punishable on conviction by a term of imprisonment up to five years.
Section 3 - Unauthorised modification of computer material
Where a person does any act that causes the unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer a section 3 offence is committed. There must have been the intent to cause the modification and knowledge that the modification has not been authorised. The offence does not have to be preceded by a section 1 offence. This offence covers the introduction of harmful worms and viruses to a system, and denial of service attacks. The offence is punishable on summary conviction for a term not exceeding five years.
Under section 17(7) of the Act a modification takes place if by the operation of any function of any computer any program or data held in the computer is altered or erased, or is added to its contents. Any act which contributes towards causing a modification shall be regarded as causing it. Under section 17(8) a modification is unauthorised if the person is not entitled to determine whether the modification should be made, or he does not have consent to make the modification from any person who is so entitled.
Hacking, computer fraud and computer viruses are all relatively new crimes that established English laws were not designed to deal with. For example, under existing laws a hacker could only be prosecuted for the theft of electricity.
To deal with these new crimes, a law was introduced in 1990 called 'The Computer Misuse Act'.
Under this law, the following offences could be dealt with:
- Hacking - unauthorised access to any program or data held in a computer. Penalty is a maximum fine of £2000 and a six month prison sentence.
- Computer fraud and blackmail. Penalty is an unlimited fine and a maximum five year prison sentence.
- Viruses - unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer, impairing the operation of any program or reliability of data. Penalty is an unlimited fine and a maximum five year prison sentence.
Church and Copyright
By law, the copyright owner is the only one who has the right to reproduce their work. If any other party wants to reproduce the material in any manner, permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. Copyrighted creative works such as musical compositions are often referred to as "intellectual property." That is exactly how they should be treated: as the property of the copyright owner.
These are the copyrights owner’s exclusive rights:
- To reproduce the copyrighted work in any form, including but not limited to: printed copies, digital files, recordings, tapes, CDs, videos, motion pictures, or any duplicating process which later comes into being.
- To make arrangements and adaptations of the copyrighted work.
- To distribute and/or sell printed or recorded copies of the work.
- To synchronize the copyrighted work with visual images: video or film.
- To perform the copyrighted work.
- To display the copyrighted work.
- To license others to do any of the above.
You have to get permissions to do these things:
- Make photocopies of copyrighted music
- Print bulletins, songbooks or songsheets containing copyrighted works for use in church services, Bible studies, or home prayer groups as long as they are not sold
- Make a transparency, a slide or an electronic file of a copyrighted work for projection
- Make a photocopy of a copyrighted work for my accompanist in order to sing a solo
- Make audio recordings of worship services
- Make videos of worship services or special musical presentations, such as youth, children. s, and holiday presentations .
"The religious services exemption" in the Copyright Law permits for the performance of copyrighted religious works in the course of services at places of worship or at religious assemblies. However, performance licenses must be obtained from the copyright owner for any musical performance outside of a specific "worship service" including concerts and special musical programs.
So there you have it, you now know about the 3 law related rules I spoke about today, and you know how the church revolves around it as well.