Lauren & I are getting to be regular visitors at John Rylands’ Library for various events, and on the 18th November we returned for the ‘ARA Core Training: Copyright’ course.
Copyright is something we deal with frequently in the library, mainly in regards to our image archive, and it’s a topic which is quite confusing to everybody as there are many variables. Looking into the history of copyright, it appears that there has always been some confusion and disagreement surrounding it.
The concept of copyright originated in the UK in 1710 with the Statute of Anne, its full name being “An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned”. The original statute is held at the British Library. It begins with:
“Printers, Booksellers, and other
Persons, have of late frequently taken
the Liberty of Printing, Reprinting,
and Publishing… Published Books,
and other Writings without the Con-
sent of the Authors or Proprietors… to their
very great Detriment, and too often
to the Ruin of them and their Families”
A full transcription and images of the statute exist here.
The statute granted publishers of a book legal protection for fourteen years, and twenty-one years for books already in print. In 1731 the copyright and protection it granted began to expire, and London booksellers lobbied parliament to extend the copyright term.
The ‘Battle of the Booksellers’ between the Scottish Booksellers and the London Booksellers took place for thirty years over the right to reprint materials which fell outside the protection of the act, and it was argued out in a number of court cases. The London Booksellers argued that without perpetual copyright authors would have no incentive to continue creating literary works as there would be no financial benefit for them or their descendants.
The case of Donaldson vs Beckett reached the House of Lords in 1774, and Lord Camden vocally rejected the idea of perpetual copyright, voicing his concerns that learning would be locked up and the price dictated by booksellers. The Lords voted against perpetual copyright, and confirmed that copyright did expire – opening a large number of books and other works to the public domain, this broke the dominance of London booksellers and allowed for competition.
An agreement was reached that authors had a pre-existing common law copyright over their works, which was limited by the Statute of Anne for the wider social good. There were fourteen copyright acts introduced between 1734 and 1888, covering engravings, prints, sculptures, dramatic works, lectures and musical compositions.
The Statute of Anne remained in force until the Copyright Act 1842 repealed it. The copyright Act 1842 declared that copyright of a book would last for the author’s lifetime and a further seven years from their death. If this period was less than forty two years, then the copyright would remain in place for the full forty two years.
In 1911 an act was introduced to replace all previous copyright laws, extending to all parts of the British Empire. It established a single statute covering all types of copyright, and implemented the Berne Convention which abolished common law copyright in unpublished works. The act also abolished the need for registration, and indicated that copyright is established upon creation of a work. The copyright term was extended to the lifetime of the author and fifty years thereafter.
The copyright act 1956 expanded copyright law to adhere to international copyright law and technological advancements. This was reformulated in 1988 to form the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which is the copyright law in use today.
The act establishes that copyright for seventy years after the death of the creator if known, or seventy years after the work was created if the creator is unknown.
There are a set of exceptions to copyright law known as ‘fair dealing’ for the purpose of research, criticism and review.
Dr Ellie Pridgeon
The first talk we had was from Dr Ellie Pridgeon, the former Deputy Archivist at The Science Museum, London. The Science Museum archives are a record scientific, medical and technological change from the 1700’s to the present.
Dr Pridgeon spoke about the Hooper collection held at the Science Museum, and the large difficulty of copyright which surrounds it.
Hooper & Co were a British coach building company based in Westminster, London from 1805 to 1959. The company were known for making luxury coaches, both horse-drawn and motor powered. The Hooper collection at the Science Museum has original design drawings and car construction records, and the Denver Public Library has items from the records between 1947 and 1979 received from Rippey’s Veteran Car Museum including the collection of Osmond Rivers, Hooper designer 1930s to 1950s and Managing Director.
Dr Pridgeon explained how the Hooper collection is frequently used by classic car enthusiasts and PhD students, it is a popular archive but a lot of issues surround it regarding copyright. Hooper & Co was taken over by the BSA group, and a new entity Hooper (motor services) Ltd which acted as a sales and service company. The law states that if copyright is not transferred to the new company, then copyright remains with the original company – it is not clear whether the copyright was transferred, therefore unclear who owns the copyright. Also adding to the confusion is the timescale of the archive – some items are out of copyright under the 70 year rule, but other items the date is unclear.
The museum sought advice from first Tim Padfield, and then a legal advisor. They have a member of staff who is searching to find who the copyright belongs to. It was very interesting to hear of the issues other organisations have with copyright, and it also shows how frustrating the topic of copyright can be.
You can see some of Hooper’s designs which were photographed from Osmond Rivers’ collection (held at Denver Public Library) here:
http://www.rrec.org.uk/Cars/Coachwork/Hooper_and_Barker.php
The Science Museum have a blog about their collections which you can view here:
http://sciencemuseumdiscovery.com/blogs/collections/
Tim Padfield
Tim Padfield is a widely recognised expert in the field of copyright. He worked as an Information Policy Consultant at the National Archives for over 30 years, advising on copyright and public sector information issues, retiring earlier this year. He has also written books advising Archivists & Record Managers about copyright, and in May he was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Archives and Records Association.
There is a post on the ARA website written by Tim Padfield, advising about the supply of copies of documents by archivists.
Mr Padfield gave a very interesting talk about the issues surrounding copyright, and offered some clarification around the principles of copyright illustrated by a myriad of examples of court cases.
He indicated the issues which need resolving, and spoke about how the copyright laws are about to be changed.
Overall the day was very informative and interesting, and shed a little light on the huge topic of copyright.
There have been recent articles in the news regarding copyright. In 2011 the Independent Newspaper wrote about the call for change:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/call-for-copyright-law-changes-2285792.html
And in 2013 it wrote about changes being made to media sharing laws:
Natasha's Heritage 