What Is The Definition Of The Copyright Act – Does It Apply To Your Special Events?

Ignore The Copyright Act At Your Own Risk!

So what is Copyright?

An author or a creator of an original work is given rights to protect the work from being copied, sold, hired or otherwise distributed without the permission of the creator.

The author or creator of the work may sell, copy, distribute and otherwise do pretty much what they want with their own work.

But no one else can without their permission.

There are a few exceptions to the rule. You cannot copyright ideas that have not been put on paper, lists such as telephone directories, recipes and a few other items. Ideas need to be fixed or expressed. Copyright does not need to be registered. Creation of a work is sufficient.

For example, this article is copyright to Tim Bennett (that’s me) and no one else may use it without my permission.

Other exceptions are also allowed that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.

There is a provision for “fair dealing’ also which takes into consideration the use of copyright material that is normally allowable for research that is not commercial and takes into account how much work is used, the commercial content and the nature of work.

If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Copyright now covers, but not limited too, maps, books, paintings, motion pictures, sound recordings, other written material, computer programs and other works.

Copyright Length Of Term

Copyright does not expire when the creator dies.

The copyright is passed to the estate of the creator and extends up to 50 to 100 years after the death and can also be renewed by the estate of the creator.

The length of term of copyright varies according to country, so please check before using any copyright material of deceased artists or creators.

What Is The Definition Of The Copyright Act – How Does It Affect Your Shows?

Well basically it means that you cannot use any copyright material without permission of the author or creator.

This includes music, video, film and other works. I regularly go to shows where epic movies are edited and used for visuals in special events and this is illegal without permission and should the creator find out, you could be in a lot of legal trouble.

What Can I Do To Protect Myself At My Shows?

Well there are many ways to use works of art at your shows:

1) Get permission from authorized owners

2) Use public domain material

3) Use Creative Commons material

4) Create new material.

5) Use material created by the government (most government material is not under copyright)

Copyright is a very complex matter and What Is The Definition Of The Copyright Act cannot really be explained fully here, however, basically it is illegal to use copyright material without permission and I recommend that you consult a lawyer before using any such material for your shows.

Permissions for some works of famous artists can be really expensive, running into thousands of dollars for just seconds of material, but trying to beat the system and using illegally can have much more serious consequences.

Note that public performance licenses and copyright licenses are different and a public performance license does not give you permission to use copyright material. It only gives you permission to transmit performances in public.