Just A Minute

 
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Re: Missing JAMs

Messages in this topic: 12 View All
kj.naughtonMay 1, 2012
 

 
Hi folks,

Just a quick point as this is a complicated area.

An Australian person wanting to sell "home brew" CDs of Just A Minute in Australia needs to look to Australian law to see what is and isn't allowed. Even though JAM is a UK work, it's the law of the country where the work is being used that counts. UK law is not extra-territorial regarding copyright and, in this example, what UK law says is irrelevant, even though the work originated there.

I use Australia as an example as Clitheroe Kid did below, but the principle applies to all countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention.

A lot of confusion arises because there's a difference between a work receiving copyright (which does depend on the laws of the country in which it was produced) and the protection that the work receives (which depends on the law in the country where the work is being used).

So to take a worked example, Let's say a radio show was broadcast in 1960 in the UK and it qualifies as a copyrighted work (i.e. it's got original work in it). And let's say the copyright expires after 50 years in the UK and 70 years in Australia. A person in the UK could therefore use legally profit from the work in the UK but it would still be illegal in Australia.

Cheers

kJ

--- In just-a-minute@..., Clitheroe Kid <clitheroekid@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Under UK law, broadcast copyright exists in a radio show under either the Copyright Act 1956 or the Act of 1988, depending on whether the broadcast in question was first aired before or after 1988.
>
> In the 1956 Act, there is only a prohibition on commercial use of a recording of a show, and only for 50 years. The Act does NOT prohibit non-commercial use.
>
> There is a campaign under way to try to get the file sharing sites to recognise that file shaing of a BBC show that was first broadcast before 1963 is not unlawdful, and that even if the episode aired after 1963 sharing it is still NOT banned by the Act unless money is paid - something which never happens in the context of file-sharing.
>
> You need to understand that, whatever the law might be in Australia, this is a BBC show, and the BBC is limited by the laws of England, not those of Australia. It can, under UK law, prevent commercial use of its shows, but not their non-commercial use.
>
> Beware of believing all the stuff on the internet about copyright law. Most of it turns out to relate to American copyright law. Very little of it applies in the UK.

 
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