Chapter 15Business propertyrecognised as the creator of the work. The right of attri-
bution gives a person such as an author the right to pre-
vent a work which he has not producedbeing attributed
to him, or a film falsely attributed to him as a director.
Private or domestic commissions
There are special rights given to those who commission
photographs or films for their own private or domestic
purposes. Where there is copyright in the resulting work,
the person who commissioned it has the right not to
have the work issued, exhibited or shown to the public,
or broadcast or included in a cable programme service.
Infringement
An author whose moral rights have been infringed is
entitled to an injunction and damages. These moral rights
continue for the same length of time as copyright, i.e.
the life of the author plus 70 years except for false attribu-
tion which continues for only 20 years after the person’s
death. Moral rights can be left by will or separately from
any copyright and the beneficiary would then be able to
enforce them in the same way as the original author. So
a son or daughter made the beneficiary of an author/
parent’s moral rights could protect those rights after the
death of the parent, even though the parent had sold the
copyright during his lifetime.
The Copyright etc. and Trade Marks (Offences and
Enforcement) Act 2002 should also be noted. It will
help enforcement against those who infringe copyright
and trade mark rights. The Act gives the police power
to obtain warrants to search and seize property from any
business that they believe is using unlicensed software.
Under previous law only traders and importers could be
prosecuted.
Semiconductor product topographies
This is a new form of intellectual property protection
introduced into the UK by statutory instrument under
an EC Directive. It protects integrated circuit layout
designs found in computers, and in home equipment
such as hi-fi, compact disc players and food processors,
in a similar way to literary copyright.
Computer software
The 1988 Act continues the previous position under
which computer software is protected in the same way as
that of literary copyright.
Copyright and the Internet
Advances in technology have resulted in the 1988 Act
being applied in novel fact situations. Thus, in Shetland
Times Ltd vJonathan Wills(1997) the court decided
that it would be appropriate to issue an injunction to
prevent the defendants placing their newspaper head-
lines on the claimant’s website.The Copyright and Related Rights
Regulations 2003
These regulations (SI 2003/2498) came into force on
31 October 2003. They make changes in the law by adding
new provisions to the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988. The main changes appear below.
Performers now have the right to consent or prohibit
a recording of their performance being made available
to the public by electronic transmission, including the
Internet. There is a new criminal offence for those who
make infringing copies and communicate them to the
public or have reason to believe this will happen. Those
making illicit recordings also commit an offence. If the
‘making available’ is not in the course of a business, there
will only be an offence if the infringement is to such an
extent as to be prejudicial to the holder of the right.
These new rights are designed to assist the music and
film industries, in particular, in the fight against wide-
spread and unauthorised downloading of their works
on the Internet.
Other areas of change that have impact on business
generally are set out below.
1 Copying for commercial research.The most import-
ant change that the regulations make to the 1988 Act
and the one that will have the most immediate effect on
business is the abolition of the fair dealing exception
for commercial research. Under previous law those in
business could lawfully take copies of copyright works
as a basis for commercial research so long as the copy-
ing was fair. There was no definition of what could be
regarded as fair but the general understanding was copy-
ing that was not prejudicial to the rights of the holder
of the copyright. In consequence, much of the copying
by those in business arguably fell within the fair dealing
exception. Under the regulations businesses including
accounting and law firms will have to review their pro-
cedures to see whether a licence may be required.
2 Criticism, review and news reporting.The provi-
sions of the 1988 Act have been amended but continue437