7. Copyright infringement Law

Examine the following examples and decide whether the person or organisation in question has infringed copyright. Prove your point.

1. An academic wants to reproduce in his article a table of statistics from somebody else's work. He writes to the publisher asking for permission, but before he receives a reply, the article is published.

2. a) A banker commissions an artist to make a portrait of the banker’s daughter. The finished portrait is so good that before handing it over to the banker, and without asking for permission, the artist exhibits it in the local gallery. b) The banker exhibits this same portrait without the artist’s permission.

3. A composer writes a song whose refrain repeats the twelve bars of a popular news programme jingle.

4. A university lecturer publishes a book which includes material both from his public lectures and lectures read at university.

5. A photographer recreates a specific arrangement in an existing photograph (which is a copyright work) and makes a new photograph of his own.

6. A translator uses a French (licensed) translation of an English novel to translate the work into German.

7. An author recites a poem, previously unrecorded in any permanent form, at a party but never publishes it. A poet present among the guests has a very good memory; two years later he publishes the poem as his own creation.

8. 'Fair dealing' Law

Examine the following examples and decide whether the act in question constitutes ‘fair dealing’. Prove your point.

1. A journalist writes and publishes a critical book about a popular sect. The book contains a substantial number of extracts from the sect leader’s works and the sect’s publications.

2. A television company uses (without permission) a number of photographs of famous personalities in a programme devoted to the review and criticism of celebrity journalism.

3. A newspaper wants to advertise on television its new free women’s supplement. The TV ad compares the new supplement with a popular women’s magazine and includes the cover of that magazine.

4. A nurse in a local hospital often works afternoon shifts. Not wishing to miss her favourite serial, she records it.

5. A researcher working for a bio-engineering company regularly photocopies articles related to his project from scientific journals.

6. A large chain of department-stores regularly circulates and distributes to its staff cuttings of articles of interest to the store without a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency.

7. A freelance journalist is working privately on a series of articles concerning the activities of a left-wing party and compiles a file containing photocopies of outside copyright material. He has accepted an offer from an international magazine to sell the articles.