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Copyright

The copyright provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 protect three categories of work¹. The first grouping, 'original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works' includes the classic types of authors' works which have longest enjoyed copyright protection. The works must be original and exist in a material form before copyright may subsist.

The second category of works comprises sound recordings, films and broadcasts. Whilst sound recordings and films are embodied in a tangible form capable of permanent existence, broadcasts exist only in evanescent form. To protect repeat broadcasts, they are given copyright which endures as long as that in the original.

The third category of work, the typographical arrangement of a published edition, protects publishers rather than authors.

Computer programs are within the definition of literary works and are therefore afforded copyright protection².

Ownership and duration of copyright

The author is the first owner of copyright, although where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a