Under UK law, there is no registration of copyright. Copyright protection is free and applies automatically from the time an original work is created.

Generally, a person who has created a work owns the copyright in that work. However, there are exceptions to this rule. The most important is that the employer owns the copyright in the work created by an employee in the course of his or her employment, unless the employment contract provides otherwise.

In the case of joint productions, copyright may be owned jointly and equally by all the participants, meaning that no author can deal with the work as if he or she were the sole author of the work. This position can be changed by agreement between the parties.

Copyright does not protect individual words or short phrases as these are not considered ‘original’ works that can be protected by copyright. Therefore, 2 works can have the same title as long as the content of the works themselves is not copied.

Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses all or a substantial part of your work without permission and in a way that infringes your exclusive rights. If you believe your copyright has been infringed, you can contact the infringer and explain what they should do, or send a demand letter asking them to stop infringing. If you fear that your copyright has been infringed, it is advisable to seek legal advice on how to resolve the matter.

Just because content is freely available on the internet does not mean that it can be freely used. Copyright laws apply to all material on the internet.

Except in certain circumstances, any copying or publication without the copyright holder’s consent is an infringement, even if the use is for a non-commercial purpose.