Copyright Designs & Patents Act (1988)
Computer Science: OCR A Level, topic 5.1.3
Copyright Designs and Patents Act (1988)
Copyright is a legal framework to protect the use of intellectual property.
The act
- Copyright automatically applies to any original creative work that is physically expressed - you don't have to register the work.
- Under the act, it is illegal to:
- Make copies of copyrighted material.
- Share copyrighted material.
- Use unlicensed software.
- Plagiarise someone's creative work.
Using copyrighted material
- It is possible to request permission from the copyright holder to use their material.
- This is done by writing to the creator, stating what you intend to use the work for.
- The copyright holder does not have to grant permission.
- If they do, they can choose to demand a fee.
Patents
- Patents are legal protections over inventions. They cover ideas and concepts rather than intellectual property.
- Patents can apply to both hardware and software and must be registered.
Issues related to the act
- There are a number of issues around copyright that have been raised by advances in computing:
- The Internet makes file sharing very easy, especially using peer-to-peer services.
- Digital representation of text, images, audio and video allow for perfect copies to be made.
- There is uncertainty over whether or not website hosts are responsible for the illegal content uploaded by their users.