Copyright is about the right to reproduce one's own original work.  The work may be literary, dramatic, musical or artistic.  There is no requirement that the work has merit in any of these areas, merely that it is original i.e. that it required original thought in its creation. 

Important features of copyright are:

1. The protection is against copying.  It does not give a monopoly like a patent.  Thus two people could independently conceive identical original works and each would have copyright protection.
   
2. Copyright automatically belongs to the author of the work.  There is no registration process because the work defines itself.  It is advisable however to mark a work with the author’s name, the date on which it was created and the internationally recognised symbol © to indicate that copyright is being claimed.
   
3. Copyright is said to "subsist" in a work and once the work is created, copyright subsists in it.  The work does not have to be published but there must be a physical record of it.
   
4. In the EU, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years.
   
5. Literary works include not just books, plays etc. but also computer programmes (refer to the factsheet 'Intellectual Property Rights - Protection of Software').  Databases (i.e. collections of independent works, data or other materials, arranged in a systematic or methodical way) are not however included.  They are not seen as requiring original thought in their creation and are therefore not entitled to the full copyright term.  This would include such items as timetables, mailing lists etc.  The Irish Copyright Act of 2000 however recognises that such items may have commercial value.  It provides therefore for a separate database right where creation of the database has required a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying and presenting the contents.  This database right has a term of fifteen years from the end of the calendar year of its creation.
   
6. Artistic Works - The interpretation of “artistic” can be very widely.  It can include paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings and photographs irrespective of their artistic quality.  Drawings include any diagram, map, chart or plan.

Click here to return to the Intellectual Property page.