Copyright

The purpose of copyright law is to reward and provide an incentive for creative activity. Its aim is to provide a balance between protection for creators and the need for access to the results of that creative effort. The copyright system operates by giving creators, and those who invest in their work, legal rights which enable them to commercially exploit their work.

When the manuscript is published, you must send a copy of the book's 'best edition' to the National Library and to the State Library where publishing occurred.

In other words, if you live in Melbourne and self-published, and printed copies in paperback and also had a few bound up in hardcovers, you must send one copy of the hardcover version to the State Library of Victoria and to the National Library copyright deposit sections.

Copyright does not protect ideas or information, it protects the expression of ideas and information in certain forms.

• Artistic works such as paintings, drawings, cartoons, photographs, maps and plans.
• Dramatic works such as dances, plays and screenplays.
• Literary works: Works which comprise words may be regarded as "literary works" for the purposes of copyright law, even if they are not "literary" in the artistic sense (ie tables and compilations such as directories and catalogues). Thus, works such as instruction manuals and reports may be protected by copyright, as may more "cultural" works such as novels, poems and essays.

Copyright does not protect titles.

Very small combinations of words, such as names, titles and slogans, are generally not regarded as "literary works" and not eligible for copyright protection. However, there may be legal remedies where, for example, a writer passes off his or her work as that of another writer's by using the same title, or same cover style, for a work in the same subject area.

Requirements for copyright protection.

You don't have to file anything. Your manuscript is automatically protected by Australian copyright law. When it is published, you must lodge deposit copies with State and Federal libraries.

Rights of copyright owners.

Owners of copyright have the exclusive right to do certain things with their material. The type and extent of the rights differ according to the type of copyright material.

Owners of copyright in literary, dramatic and artistic works have the exclusive rights to:

• Reproduce the work, including by photocopying, copying by hand, recording, and producing a computer readable version.
• Make the work public for the first time.
• Broadcast the work or transmit it to subscribers.

Owners of copyright in literary and dramatic works have the following additional rights:

• The right to perform the work in public or perform a work live.
• The right to make an adaptation of the work, a translation or dramatised version of a literary work, or a translation or non-dramatised version of a dramatic work.

Infringement of copyright.

Generally, copyright is infringed if all or a "substantial part" of copyright material is used in one of the ways exclusively reserved to the copyright owner, in circumstances to which no exception applies. A small part may be "substantial" for copyright purposes if it is an essential, important or recognisable part of the whole work from which it comes.

Copyright may also be infringed by a person who "authorises" an infringing act. In addition, importing and dealing with articles containing copyright material without the permission of the copyright owner may infringe copyright.

The 'Good Faith' notice.

People and publishers move, die, merge and go out of business. It is more common to see a paragraph like the one below on the reverse of the title page. This notice will not provide you with any legal defence to copyright infringement, but using it may save costs if you're sued.

'We have tried to contact every owner of copyright used in this book.
Copyright in photographs, drawings, newspaper clippings and other materials remains with their artists and authors. The publishers are happy to acknowledge appropriate copyrights in future editions.'

Moral Rights

Basically there are three moral rights:

• The right of creators - under Australian law called 'authors' - of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and for film makers, to be attributed (ie credited) for their work
• The (sort of in-reverse) right not to have another person's work falsely attributed to them, and
• The right to protect the integrity of their works and not to have them altered in a prejudicial way.

Bruce Bulsford, AWG, in Storyline issue 5

Getting permission to use copyrighted material

Copyright permissions, reproduction fees and proper acknowledgements are necessary to reproduce maps, drawings, photos, lyrics, and so on which belong to others.

For example, a book of family history may include many items, each covered by its own copyright, such as text written from notes you took when you interviewed family members, family snapshots or professional photos that people owned and lent to you to use, maps you cut out of a recent street directory, photos purchased from newspapers or a library.

To make it easy and simple for others to give you permission to use their work, we have created a form (in Microsoft Word) which you can use. Download it from Copyright, ISBN, CIP, PLR, ELR

Subsidiary Rights

There are many potential markets for your words once your book is published. Some of the areas where you can earn licence fees for reproduction are:

• anthologies

You'll need to let editors know of your work. Keep track of who's editing poetry collections and short story anthologies. Use our database. Send complimentary copies of your books to the relevant editors.

• condensations in magazines or books
• picturisation
• paperback licence

There are many types of book markets: C format (trade paperback) for first editions, B format (Penguin-sized paperbacks) for quality reprints, A format for mass market rack-sized reprints.

• film & tv

Use our database to match what you've done with the interests of various producers.

• radio serialisation
• dramatic rights
• translation rights

Fast Books author Bill Oliver self published Sugar in the Blood almost 7 years ago. His first print run was 100 copies. Since then, it's been broadcast on ABC Radio's Australia All Over program, ABC Books published the audio on CD, and he's sold more than 4000 books. You can buy his book in our bookshop.

Frequently Asked Questions.

• How can I stop someone stealing my idea?

Because ideas are not protected by copyright law, you should put your idea into writing in whatever way you can. You might want to write up your idea as an essay or short story and self-publish a small book.

• How can I find out if the title I want to use is available?

You can call your book whatever you like, within reason, even if there is another book by that very same title somewhere else in the world. However, you cannot use a trademark or pass your work off as that of another's. Search the National Library of Australia main catalog for books with close titles.

• How can I prove that I am the author?

If there is a dispute about who wrote a work, which cannot be resolved by negotiation, it may need to be resolved by a court. A court considers all the relevant evidence when determining a dispute. The most important evidence is usually the writer's oral evidence. Other evidence may be drafts and source materials for the work.

• Is my work protected if I use a pen-name or pseudonym?

Written works are protected automatically as soon as they are "fixed"; for example, written on paper or saved to computer disk. It is not necessary that your name appear on a work for it to be protected. Thus, your use of a pen-name or pseudonym will not generally affect the copyright protection for your work. In some cases, a work first published under a pseudonym may be protected for 50 years from the year of publication rather than 50 years from the year of the author's death, if the author's identity cannot be ascertained.

• I have written a paper which describes a new method of doing something. Is my method or technique protected by copyright?

Methods and techniques are not protected by copyright, which means that copyright will not assist you to prevent someone who reads your paper from using that method. Copyright protects the way you have described the method in your paper, which means that you may have rights against someone who photocopies your paper or reproduces an important part of the way you have described your method in their own paper.

• What is the duration of copyright protection?

Copyright lasts for 50 years after the death of the author.

• Can copyright be renewed or revived?

Once copyright in a work has expired, it cannot be revived by subsequent publication or otherwise. A publisher who publishes an edition of a "public domain" work (such as a work of Shakespeare) may own copyright in the typographical arrangement of that particular edition (and thus be able to prevent another publisher making an exact copy of that edition). However, the copyright in the work is not revived by republishing; anyone can still reproduce all or parts of it.

• I'm using some old newspaper clippings in my book. Is this okay?

If the story was written by a journalist who was an employee, you must ask the journalist. If the journalist was a freelancer, the newspaper can probably give you permission. If it all happened 50 years ago or so, there may be no copyright attached to the articles.

• What is the standard copyright notice?

If your book is first published in Australia, the notice you print on the back of the title page - the verso page - will encapsulate the protection offered by the Australian Copyright Act. Don't just copy an American or English book's notice. Their acts, while similar, are different.

• I wrote a book that was published in 1974. Can I print it myself?

Probably, because it was first published more than 25 years ago. The copyright to the words was yours from the start, and you licenced its publication to a book publisher. Their book design, layout and typesetting - which were the property and carry copyright protection for the publisher - are only protected for 25 years.

• What if it came out in 1995?

Even if it is out of print and the publisher has given you back your rights, you may not freely photocopy and reproduce their edition.

• This page makes reference to the booklet "Writers and Copyright" by the Australian Copyright Council.

How to get an ISBN, sign up for public lending right, and send your books to libraries as required by the copyright act. Use your password to get forms and further details about Copyright, ISBN, CIP, PLR, ELR

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