NCFE Write up, Week Two

4.2 What is copyright?

Copyright is a temporary legal right given to a creator that allows their work to be protected and prevents it from being stolen by others. This does not protect their idea, it just protects their art from being used by someone else.

4.2 Why does copyright law exist?

Copyright law exists in order to protect creators work. Prior to copyright, anyone could steal someone’s work or design for a product and claim it as their own. This devalues someone work and the creator of the work is not getting the recognition that they deserve.

4.2 What kind of work in covered by copyright?

Copyright is able to protect artistic works such as films, music, plays, novels, poetry, architecture and computer software. Copy right is not able to protect the ideas of these, only the finished work. Names cannot be protected by copyright, it is instead protected by the trademark law.

4.2 What might happen if you were to use copyrighted material in your film?

Once you have copyrighted your material, this means it has been protected and cannot be used by anyone else. This means if someone was to use your material in their film you could take legal action against them and sue them for money.

4.2 How can you make sure not to infringe copyright law in your film?

In order to prevent infringing copyright law in your film, filmmakers should research the material they are using, to see if a copyright law has been used against it. If the filmmakers was to then discover that the material they wanted to use had been copyrighted they could then chose to use different material or they could get in contact with the owner of the material, asking them if they have permission to use it.

4.2 How has copyright law and other IP regulation affected your film production?

Copyright law has affected my film production as it has affected the material I am able to use. If copyright law did not exist it would give you free range to use whatever material you like, with no limits of other creators taking legal action against you.