Useful Copyright links

Here you will find a list of other (usually free) sources of information about copyright, which can be read in tandem with our Frequently Asked Questions section.

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  • 29 September Anti Copying in Design (ACID)
    address
    PO Box 5078, Gloucester, GL19 3YB
    contact
    help@acid.uk.com
    telephone
    0845 644 3617
    telephone
    Legal Hotline: 0845 230 5742
    email
    help@acid.uk.com
    website
    acid.eu.com

    Set up to combat copyright and design right infringement. Membership includes visual and applied artists and designers. Offers a free legal advice and a design registration service. Membership fees based on annual turnover of your business.

  • 29 September Beyond-the-Lens
    contact
    btl@aophoto.co.uk
    email
    btl@aophoto.co.uk
    website
    http://www.beyond-the-lens.com

    Published in England by the Association of Photographers (AOP), Beyond the Lens is the essential guide to rights, ethics and business practice in professional photography. Divided in two parts, the book covers copyright, moral rights, contract law, privacy, photographing children, late payment and any legislation that photographers need to be aware of. It can bought online both as a printed book and by chapter, downloadable as PDF files.

  • 29 September What is Copyright?
    website
    http://www.whatiscopyright.org

    Website with basic information on copyright, covering international copyright information contained in the Berne Convention.

  • 29 September Foundation for Information Policy Research
    address
    10 Water End, Wrestlingworth, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2HA
    contact
    chair2006@fipr.org
    telephone
    01223 334733
    email
    chair2006@fipr.org
    website
    http://www.fipr.org/intellectual.html

    The Foundation for Information Policy Research is an independent body that studies the interaction between information technology and society. Its goal is to identify technical developments with significant social impact, commission and undertake research into public policy alternatives, and promote public understanding and dialogue between technologists and policy-makers in the UK and Europe. They have a section on Intellectual property.

  • 29 September Center for the Study of the Public Domain
    address
    Duke University Law School Box 90360, Durham, NC 27708-0360 USA
    contact
    jenkins@law.duke.edu
    email
    jenkins@law.duke.edu
    website
    http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/

    The public domain is the realm of material-ideas, images, sounds, discoveries, facts, texts-that is unprotected by intellectual property rights and free for all to use or build upon. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School is the first university centre in the world devoted to the other side of the picture. Founded in September of 2002, as part of the school's wider intellectual property program, its mission is to promote research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system and to translate academic research into public policy solutions.

  • 29 September Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
    contact
    ipr@dfid.gov.uk
    email
    ipr@dfid.gov.uk
    website
    http://www.iprcommission.org
    website
    http://www.iprcommission.org/graphic/documents/final_report.htm

    The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights originated in the UK Government's White Paper on International Development "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor" published in December 2000 (paragraphs 142-149). The aim was ".to look at the ways that intellectual property rules need to develop in the future in order to take greater account of the interests of developing countries and poor people." Study papers are available to download.

  • 29 September The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. (CLA)
    address
    Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS UK
    contact
    cla@cla.co.uk
    telephone
    020 7400 3100
    fax
    020 7400 310
    email
    cla@cla.co.uk
    website
    http://www.cla.co.uk/copyright_information_aboutcopyright.php

    The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd are a non profit-making company owned by authors and publishers, who protect the value of their creativity by enabling them to get a fair reward when their works are copied. The CLA license organisations to copy extracts from books, journals and magazines. Their licences permit the photocopying, scanning and emailing of articles from these publications without having to seek permission from the copyright owner each time.

  • 29 September The Free Software Foundation
    address
    51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
    contact
    info@fsf.org
    email
    info@fsf.org
    website
    http://www.fsf.org
    website
    http://www.gnu.org

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF), established in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of Free Software, particularly the GNU operating system, used widely in its GNU / Linux variant. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues surrounding freedom in the use of software.

  • 29 September Electronic Frontiers Foundation
    contact
    information@eff.org
    telephone
    001 415 436 9333
    email
    information@eff.org
    website
    http://www.eff.org

    EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990, well before the Internet was on most people's radar, and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights. Now it also includes bloggers' rights.

  • 29 September CPTech's IP information page
    contact
    mpalmedo@cptech.org
    email
    mpalmedo@cptech.org
    website
    http://www.cptech.org/ip/

    The Consumer Project on Technology was started by Ralph Nader in 1995. Their work is documented extensively on the CPTech web page. Currently CPTech is focusing on intellectual property rights and health care, electronic commerce (very broadly defined) and competition policy.

  • 29 September Creative Commons
    address
    171 Second St, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94105 USA
    telephone
    001 415 369 8480
    website
    http://www.creativecommons.org

    Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. They work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them - to declare "some rights reserved." Main aim: to build a layer of reasonable, flexible copyright in the face of increasingly restrictive default rules.

This article is from the Artlaw Archive of Henry Lydiate's columns published in Art Monthly since 1976, and may contain out of date material.
The article is for information only, and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.
Readers should consult a solicitor for legal advice on specific matters, and artists in London can get free online legal advice from Artquest