A guide to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), 2023 - Flipbook - Page 17
Copyright: overview
The basis of copyright is a work created by a person who is the author.
The works protected by copyright under UK copyright law, which is set
out in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), include:
•
Original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works (section 1(1)(a),
CDPA) which, in the case of literary, dramatic or musical works are
recorded in some way (section 3(2), CDPA).
•
Sound recordings, films or broadcasts (section 1(1)(b), CDPA).
A computer program, the source code, object code and preparatory design
materials in relation to it may be protected by copyright as a literary work.
The key originality test set down in Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades
Forening (Case C 5/08) (Infopaq I) requires that, to be protected by copyright,
the subject matter is the expression of the author’s own intellectual creation.
In the later case of Cofemel - Sociedade de Vestuário SA v G-Star Raw CV (Case
C-683/17) EU:C:2019:721, the ECJ’s findings included that, to be original, a
subject matter had to reflect the personality of its author, as an expression
of their free and creative choices. It is unclear whether Infopaq I has altered
the originality test applied by the UK courts, which required the author to have
created the work through their own skill, judgement and individual effort and
not have copied it from other works.
Copyright arises automatically on the creation of the work (provided that the
work meets the requirements for copyright to subsist (including originality in
the case of literary, artistic and musical works), and qualifies for copyright
protection under UK law) and lasts for 70 years after the death of the author
and 50 years from the year of making of sound recordings and broadcasts.
The owner of copyright has the right to prevent copying (whether direct or
indirect) and various other uses of the whole or a substantial part of their
copyright work in the UK, including communicating the work to the public or
authorising another person to do these acts, subject to various permitted acts
which may be carried out without a copyright owner’s permission.
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