TABLE OF CONTENTS Every engineer reading this book is a copyright owner and every engineering company also owns copyright. The reason is that this particular legal right applies automatically to an immense range of material.
Copyright is associated with every literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes. The implications for the engineer are clear for the items in the second part of the list, but the definition of literary work is sufficiently broad to cover engineering reports and specifications, and computer software; engineering drawings are classified as artistic works .
The legal right comes into effect automatically, there is no need to register it or take any action there is nowhere in the UK that copyright can be registered.
Copyright does not protect an idea or a concept, it protects the way in which the idea is expressed, the precise words or the actual drawing. There is no test for literary or artistic merit but the work must be original; it must be created by the engineer and not copied from something else, and the creator must have contributed skill or labour.
In this age of the Internet and rapidly expanding use and misuse of digital copyright material, international cooperation is essential. This area of IP law is highly active and subject to change in accordance with international and EU agreements.
The main law applicable in the UK is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which will be referred to as...
