Copyright

What is Copyright?

Copyright describes a set of exclusive rights that are given to owners of

•     written works including emails, training manuals, novels and song lyrics; tables and compilations including multimedia works, and computer programs

•     dramatic works including dance, mime and film scenarios or scripts

•     musical works including the score and sheet music

•      artistic works including paintings, drawings, diagrams, maps, models, photographs and sculptures 

•     sound recordings separate to the actual music or story

•     films  any genre or format, separate from the underlying script, music or broadcast

•      communication works including radio and television broadcasts and internet webcasts

•      typographical arrangements of published editions

  Note that 

• copyright is an automatic right, which doesn’t need to be registered by the owner, it exist as soon as something is created, performed or published, as long as the work is original, and comes under one of the qualifying categories

• the owner may not be the creator of the work for example the resources created by a teacher belong to the school (The Board of Trustees) not the teacher who created them

There are some exceptions, such as limited copying of documents for use in a library, or research or the copying of a work for its translation into Braille, or where the sound recording is for personal use (sometimes called format shifting).

Related topics are Plagiarism,  Creative Commons and File Sharing


Source: http://www.netsafe.org.nz/what-is-copyright/


How long does copyright last?

• For literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works - 50 years after the author died.
• For sound recordings and films  - 50 years after it was made. However, if the work is made available to the public before the end of that 50 year period, copyright continues for 50 years after it was made available.
• For a communication work - 50 years after  it was first communicated to the public. Copyright in a repeated communication work expires at the same time as copyright in the initial communication work expires.
• A publisher's copyright in the typography of a published edition  - 25 years after  the work was first published.

All are to the end of the calendar year in which the terminating condition applies

Source : http://www.copyright.org.nz/basics.php

As a researcher or producer of work you need to take great care when using others work that you do not breach their copyright

If in doubt ask the copyright holder