Lecture 7 Notes
- You are the only person who has the right to re-produce your work
- Property of your intellect, you need to protect your rights to make a living from your work
- Should be putting copyright symbol on to your work
- Copyright belongs to the original artist
- Can obtain reproduction rights, need to negotiate the terms of reproduction, come to an agreement on the fee
- If you are engaged in private study as part of a programme of study you are allowed to 'steal', as Leeds College of Art pays a licence to allow us to photocopy books, large sum of money
- What is intellectual property? (IP) It refers to creations of your mind whether you are a writer / artist / photographer / film maker etc... It is offered for view (or sale)
- 4 basic types of intellectual property: patents, trade marks, registered designs, copyright
- Patents apply to new inventions, things that work in a new way such as mechanical/electronic things. Things have patent numbers.
:: First patent - typewriter 1714 - qwerty keyboard - Henry Mill - let others use his keyboard design for a small fee
:: Another example - ring pull - other companies wanted licence to use it - made a lot of money from being able to record that this was his idea
:: Patent leather - permanent shine on leather / wipe clean leather - retained name
- Trademarks. TM means it is a trademark under investigation, where the company has to send off their logo with colour schemes etc, when it has been proved there are no other companies with that logo in the industry, it becomes a registered trade mark, which is an R in a circle.
- Logos are a single image which you can see on a product to understand what kind of promise lies behind it. Makes it easier to identity products with the kind of qualities you are looking for. There are problems all around the world with people creating fake goods and ripping off the logos, misrepresenting what the brands are about.
- More than the shape of the logo may be registered, such as particular colours, shapes and text, as with the heinz logo. With guinness, the trademark includes the shape of the glass and the arrangement of the logo. Specialist beer now often comes with its own glass, with their logo trade marked on to it. Stands as its own advertisement
- bp & shell - two more examples of companies that have specific colours trademarked to them, no one else can use them, as they represent the company and people recognise it
- Registered designs are all about something that appears to be new (but not a new invention). A re-arrangement of decorative features.
- Intellectual property office website you get thousands of ideas that people think are worth protecting. It is £60 to register a product. Have to register each letter of a font individually.
- Copyright covers all of the things you might create, you don't have to apply for it and you don't register it. The only way to look after your copyright is to sign and date your work and save this. Only the post office and banks are guaranteed to stamp only todays date.
- Examples of copyright:
:: Information on inside cover of books - every book has an individual ISBN number, copyright symbol and authors name
:: The copyright of amazon website design 1996-2011
:: Record label says how records may not be copied without owners permission
- Copyright infringement example: photographer took photo of barack obama, cropped it, and then an artist created a pastel drawing from it. It is an infringement of copyright as it appears to be a copy of the photograph, the second infringement is that he has used barack obamas personal campaign logo. As a result, the artist has been in court since this. Moral rights infringement.
- Palin's nickname was 'barracuda', so her campaigners decided it was a good idea to play this song by heart at all of her conventions. Heart were offended that people may think they are associated with the politics of Palin, even though her people had paid a licence fee to play this song.
- Johnny cupcakes designs continually being ripped off by clothing companies such as urban outfitters. Ongoing joke battle with 'benny frying pan' t-shirts ripping off Johnny cupcakes.
- A sculptor, photographer and united states postal service - photographer licensed a photograph of a sculpture to the united states postal service for a memorial stamp. The photographer failed to ask the permission of the sculptor. Ordinarily, as a sculpture, if it is a permanent feature you are allowed to photograph it, but you cannot photograph temporary sculptures. The photographer should have licensed the image to the sculptor as it was for commercial gain, and this is against the law.
- Steinberg vs. Columbia pictures - iconic picture from the new yorker was copied for film 'Moscow on the Hudson'.
- Fair use legislation. There are some things which are original designs, that the artist retains the copyright for, but you have permission to use. Such as with rubber stamps, you can use the stamp if it is for your own use, but you can't use the stamps if you are using them for commercial gain. As then you are potentially stealing the income from the artist.
- If you are wanting to sample music, you should contact the original creator of the piece
- To secure your copyright, you should:
1. put the copyright symbol and the year and your name on the piece
2. publish the piece somewhere, such as on your blog
3. keep track of everything you have copyrighted, with date, title, and location of where it is published, give it some kind of ID number
4. be controlled about where you put stuff
If you don't keep a log book, it would be difficult to take legal action if someone has copied
- Patents last for twenty years. After 20 years it goes in to the public domain, and so other companies take it and reproduce it, and sell it under their own brand, therefore not having to do the research, they are just making the profit
- Trademarks and logos can last for ever but have to be renewed every ten years
- Design rights can last up to 25 years (if it continues to be successful) but need to be renewed every 5 years
- General copyright lasts for 70 years after your death. You can leave the material to someone else to reap the rewards.
- George Lucas was fluent in copyright laws so asked for merchandise rights for star wars instead of part of his salary
- An example of what can happen when you leave your copyright to somebody else after your death:
Andy Warhol left his copyright to his foundation, any of his images can be licensed and the money goes towards education.
- JM Barry who wrote peter pan left his copyright to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, so all of the money from the cartoon, pantomime performances, merchandise etc goes to the hospital. They did a deal with a new author to write a sequel to peter pan (Hook), so that the income comes in from this to the hospital too. The government overturned the copyright, so that if you leave your copyright to a charity, it is theres forever.
- Deviantart are happy to licence your work for no fee, helps you to keep track of who's using it.
- Cartoon stock website - you can upload your images for licensing
- AOI - Work as a collection agency - Association of illustrators
- IPO website Ipo.gov.uk - Own-it intellectual property advice
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