AF7430 Chap.3 Copyright in Screen Works
Copyright in Screen Works
A clearance procedure, not a topic
Copyright is the right to make copies, and for a producer it does two jobs at once: it protects the right to control and profit from reproducing, distributing and selling the work, and it stops that same producer using somebody else's material without permission. The second half is the one that ends up in court, which is why this chapter is organised as a procedure.
Ask whether copyright subsists, then who owned it at the first instant, then whether the term has run, and only then whether a permitted act applies. Reaching for fair dealing before the first three questions are settled is arguing about the wrong thing.
What subsists, and how low the threshold is
Copyright protects the form of expression and never the underlying idea, and it exists only in the listed categories.
Originality does not require inventiveness or creativity: the work must not be copied, and a more than trivial quantity of skill, labour and judgement must have been expended on it. Literary carries no requirement of literary merit, which is why the category covers a sonnet, a novel and a page of a telephone directory alike, along with compilations and computer programs.
Dramatic is given its natural and ordinary meaning, a work of action capable of performance with or without words or music, which is where screenplays, choreography and opera sit. Beyond those come sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes, and the typographical arrangement of a published edition.
One object, several copyrights, different owners
The layering is where marks are lost.
In a song the musical copyright attaches to the composition excluding the words, the lyrics are a literary work, and the sound recording is a third copyright belonging to the producer rather than the composer.
First ownership follows the category: the creator for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works; the producer for a sound recording; the producer and the principal director jointly for a film unless they are the same person; the broadcaster, the cable service provider and the publisher for the remaining categories. Two statutory gates move that before anyone signs.
Anything an employee produces while doing the job belongs to the employer, subject to any agreement to the contrary.
A commissioned work passes only where the agreement expressly provides for entitlement, and where it does not the commissioner holds an exclusive licence covering whatever purposes the author could reasonably have foreseen, plus the power to restrain others.
Duration, and why the film clock is different
The general term is the life of the creator plus fifty years, with typographical arrangement the single short exception at twenty-five.
A film runs for fifty years from the year in which the longest surviving of four named contributors dies: the principal director, whoever wrote the screenplay, whoever wrote the dialogue, and whoever composed music written specially for the film and used in it. Where that person cannot be identified the clock runs instead from the year of making, or from first release if that falls inside the period.
Applying the general rule to a film is an answer wrong by decades, and assuming a foreign term is the other common error.
Moral rights, exploitation and the permitted acts
Three rights cannot be transferred or assigned: to be identified as author or director at the statutory points of exposure, to object to derogatory treatment amounting to distortion or mutilation or otherwise prejudicial to honour or reputation, and not to be falsely attributed as author.
Copyright itself is property and can be assigned outright, in part or for a period, but an assignment takes effect only if it is written down and signed by the assignor; a licence transfers nothing and simply permits specified acts.
Fair dealing is available for criticism or review, for research or private study, and for reporting current events, with acknowledgement required for the first and third, and incidental inclusion never covers deliberately included music or spoken words.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Idea and expression, and how low the originality threshold is
- 02
The protected categories, including the two nobody remembers
- 03
First ownership by category, before any contract is signed
- 04
The employee gate and the commissioned-work gate
- 05
The film duration clock and its four designated persons
- 06
Moral rights, and why none of them can be bought
- 07
Assignment against licence, and which one needs writing
- 08
Fair dealing, incidental inclusion and the instructional exceptions
- 09
Why registration is evidential rather than constitutive
Three gaps in a chain of title
- 3Deal with the play and say why it needed no licence.
- 3Deal with the screenplay and state exactly what the company holds.
- 3Deal with the film itself and explain why no override applies.
Key terms
- Subsistence
- Whether copyright exists in a work at all. It requires the work to fall inside a protected category and, for the original categories, to be original in the sense of not copied.
- Joint Authorship
- The status of a film, which belongs to the producer together with the principal director unless one person fills both roles.
- Designated Person
- One of the four people whose deaths start the film copyright clock: the principal director, whoever wrote the screenplay, whoever wrote the dialogue, and whoever composed the specially written music.
- Derogatory Treatment
- An addition, deletion, alteration or adaptation amounting to distortion or mutilation of a work, or otherwise prejudicial to the author's or director's honour or reputation.
- Assignment
- A transfer of copyright, in whole or in part and for all or part of the term. It takes effect only if written down and signed by the assignor or by somebody acting for the assignor.
- Licence
- Permission to do specified acts in relation to a work. It transfers no property and can be limited by scope or by duration in the same way an assignment can.
- Incidental Inclusion
- A permitted act covering material that happens to appear in a work. It does not extend to music or sung or spoken words that were deliberately included.
- Collecting Society
- A body that licenses uses of protected works on behalf of owners in exchange for a royalty, because licensing each individual use separately is impractical.
- Typographical Copyright
- Protection for how a printed page is designed, laid out and presented rather than for what it says, and the one category with a short term.
- Sufficient Acknowledgement
- The credit required to support fair dealing for criticism or review and for reporting current events. It is not required for research or private study.
- Chain Of Title
- The documented sequence of transfers showing that a production owns or is licensed to use every layer of material in a finished work.
Copyright in Screen Works FAQ
Does paying for a script mean owning it?
Not by itself. Where a work is made on commission, copyright belongs to the commissioner only if the agreement expressly provides for entitlement to it. Where the agreement is silent the author remains first owner, and the commissioner receives an exclusive licence covering whatever purposes the author could reasonably have foreseen, together with the power to restrain other exploitation.
The gap is usually discovered when a financier or distributor asks to see the documents.
How long does copyright in a film last?
Fifty years from the end of the year in which the longest surviving of four named contributors dies: the principal director, whoever wrote the screenplay, whoever wrote the dialogue, and whoever composed music written specially for the film and used in it.
If that person cannot be identified by reasonable enquiry, the period instead runs from the year the film was made, or from the year it was first made available to the public if that happened within the period. Applying the general life-plus-fifty rule instead gives an answer wrong by decades.
Can a short clip from another film be used without permission?
Only if a listed purpose applies. Fair dealing covers criticism or review of that work or another, research or private study, and reporting current events, and the first and third require sufficient acknowledgement.
Purpose matters more than length: a decided case allowed about eight per cent of a feature in a programme criticising the decision to withdraw it, holding that a substantial proportion does not defeat the defence unless the use amounts to illegitimate exploitation. Borrowing for atmosphere is not a listed purpose at all.
Assessment move
Take one film you know well and list every separately owned layer in it: the underlying book or play, the screenplay, the score, any pre-existing songs, the recordings of those songs, any archive footage, any artwork on screen. Then say who owned each at the first instant and what document would have been needed to clear it.
Doing that once makes the commissioning gate and the film duration clock permanent, because you will have used both on facts you care about.
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