The duly noted® blog

Q: How long does a copyright last?

Extracted from “The Copyright Companion”: Available to download for FREE by Subscribing in the sidebar to the right.

Whilst listening to BBC‟s Radio 4 Today programme back in 2005, the anchor-people (or whatever the radio equivalent of that job is) were talking of a British man who was celebrating his birthday. Hardly newsworthy you may think, until I tell you he and his nearest and dearest were about to party over his achieving an impressive innings of one hundred and nine years! Can you believe that? This man could remember Queen Victoria‟s funeral in 1901!

So what‟s this got to do with the price of milk, or – more specifically – copyright?

Well, when researching this chapter, my original intention was to just give you what you needed to know; i.e. the facts about the duration of copyright as they apply to you and your work. Recalling this modern day Methuselah however (aside from wondering if he‟d had a mother of a hangover following his big day), it brought to mind the phrase “times change”… a saying our old-timer could well verify. And this made me realise something else you should know; copyright law changes over time too, and with it, your rights. And that‟s something we should all as copyright owners keep up to speed with. I‟ll get to that later, but first, here‟s the current state of play when it comes to the copyright “lifespan”.

Duration of copyright

Within the UK, under our old friend the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, the copyright on works of authorship lasts the lifetime of their author/originator, starting from the time the works were created. So after completing each and every project, you can potentially reap the rewards from them for the rest of your life. Potentially.

To clarify; if you produce any of the following, the copyright lifespan:

• for sound recordings is 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the recording was published16
• for broadcasts; 50 years17
• for published editions, it‟s 25 years
• for work by anonymous authors, it‟s 70 years from the year of publication

Not bad, eh? But that‟s not all.

Maybe this is something you didn‟t know, and it may surprise you too, but the copyright on your work can also outlive you.

That‟s right. The same copyright law grants that copyright on certain works extends beyond the life of a work‟s creator(s). For how long though depends on the type of work. Let‟s get specific about this:

• For literary, artistic, dramatic or musical works, it‟s 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author/creator died
• For films, it‟s again 70 years, but from the death of the last survivor from among the four principal creators involved; their screenwriter, their director, producer and the composer of the musical score specifically written for them.18

Pretty good deal, isn‟t it? Not just you, but your descendants could benefit from your creativity. For example, let‟s get hypothetical about our old-timer for a moment and pretend a) he created a copyrightable work like a play or poem way back when he was twenty-five and b) copyright laws were the same then as they are now. He personally could have reaped the benefits of his copyright for eighty-four years! And not only that, his descendants would still reap those rewards of his estate for another seventy years after he finally passes from this world. That‟s one hundred and fifty-plus year’s worth of copyright protection! Hypothetically speaking. Still…how‟s that for the length of time one can benefit from an intellectual property?

Not smiling yet? You should be, „cos that‟s how the law applies to you right now! And the way people are living longer nowadays, you could well be living just this scenario years from now! If that isn‟t a motivator to get creating, I don‟t know what is!

Partners in time

Remember the copyright duration for films listed above? Look at that again, because it raises another interesting point; copyright duration in relation to collaborative works, which can also dictate the overall lifespan of a work‟s copyright. Now, as with films outlined above, in the case of works created by joint-authors/originators, the copyright will endure for the specified term after the last surviving member of the collaborative team has died. For example, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are a legendary creative partnership whose songs even now, forty years on, endure. And so does their copyright. Though John Lennon was tragically murdered in 1980, the clock will still not begin ticking on the copyright life of his and Paul McCartney‟s joint compositions until the death of McCartney (live long and prosper, Paul).

Copyright duration abroad

Now the various time span limits listed above don‟t just apply to the UK. You may recall from previous articles the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions and the TRIPS Agreement, which grant the same minimum standards of copyright among their signatory states. The practical upshot of these agreements mean if you‟re a writer say, the copyright on all your works will expire at the end of the calendar year, seventy years after you‟ve departed this life. That‟s just the same whether you‟re in Australia, Ireland or Singapore as in Southend-on-sea (and I know, „cos I checked!). Cool, huh?

Still, despite these minimum international standards, there can be variances on copyright duration between countries19. Here‟s an example of not just one, but four variations on copyright duration regulations…and all within the same country!

Now under its Copyright Act of 1976, the United States of America grants automatic copyright protection to works from the moment of their creation, with duration of copyright being the lifetime of the author/originator, plus 70 years. Okay so far, same old same old. This wasn‟t always the case though, and if you‟re a US copyright owner who has produced works before 1st January 1978 – when the 1976 Act superseded its outdated predecessor – that‟s when the fun begins. If you created your work – didn‟t publish it or register it mind you, just created it – you‟re lucky, because the lifetime plus 70 rule of the 1976 Act still applies; the Act brought such works under automatic copyright protection. But if your work was created and published or registered before 1st January 1978, copyright duration was just 28 years. In that last year of the first term of copyright, the work would have been eligible for renewal for another 28 years. But if that renewal didn‟t occur, the copyright expired. No lifetime plus 70 rule here, maybe not even a copyright duration of the life of the author/originator. Not good.

Now the 1976 Act did extend that second copyright term from 28 to 47 years for works with ongoing copyright as at 1st January 1978, making the total copyright term 75 years. And another recent Public Law (105-298, enacted October 1998), has further extended the renewal term of copyrights still ongoing on that date by an additional 20 years, making the second, renewal term now 67 years, with a total copyright protection term of 95 years. Is your head spinning yet? (I didn‟t even include that for works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works, in America the term is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter!). I tell you, when I first read about these regulations, they made me reach for some aspirin!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

And this – rather neatly I think – brings me to changes to copyright law over time. The USA isn‟t alone in having to update its copyright laws. Within the last century in the UK alone there have been significant alterations to copyright law – and consequently duration of copyright. Since being passed by Parliament, the 1988 Act has been revised to take into account the European Directive on Term of Protection of Copyright 1993, which standardised the durations of copyright protection across the European Union20. And the 1988 Act had itself superseded The Copyright Act 1956, which included amendments taking into account technological advances not anticipated by its predecessor, The Copyright Act of 1911. Each subsequent Act has modified the criteria governing copyright protection, and with each new Act copyright duration has been extended.

These above examples illustrate that, despite current domestic law and international convention, you should never assume duration of copyright is a universal standard, or will remain permanently fixed. So if you‟re researching a factual book say, and you need to use copyrighted material, you must keep this in mind when seeking permissions, as what applies to newly created works now may not apply to works created fifty years ago.

The best way to be sure of the rules governing duration of copyright in your own country is to contact your government‟s intellectual property office for more guidance. If you‟re unsure how to contact them, you can look up your country‟s office at the duly noted resources page at www.dulyregistered.co.uk . Simply select the Resources page from the menu, and choose “Patent Offices”, then select a country form the drop-down menu. Alternatively, the World Intellectual Property Organisation offers such data at its website; www.wipo.int . Simply follow this path from the site‟s homepage; About WIPO > Member and Observers. Then select your country for its IP office contact details.

Will I live as long as our old timer? Will you? Who knows? But since your copyrights will live a whole lifetime again beyond yours, you should think now how you can best protect and enforce them, and ensure they provide lasting benefits not just to you in your life, but as a legacy for your loved ones when you‟re gone.

Perhaps if we imagined we had to live off the earnings from our creativity until our hundred and ninth birthday, we‟d all be a lot wiser in how we dealt with our intellectual property. 20

Extracted from “The Copyright Companion”: Available to download for FREE by Subscribing in the sidebar to the right.

Notes:

16 Though at the time of writing there is an ongoing petition by recording artists to have this extended, possibly to 90 years.

17 If not otherwise stated, all durations are calculated against the end of the calendar in which a work is published.

18 The Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988, Chapter I, Subsistence, Ownership and Duration of Copyright, section 12

19 For example, currently in the UK, recording artists‟ copyright lasts 50 years from the release of their track, during which time they can receive royalties from sales. In the USA however, our transatlantic recording artist cousins currently enjoy 95 years of copyright.

20 This was followed by the Duration of Copyright and the Rights in Performances Regulations 1995, which implemented this directive into UK law.