Copyright law in the UK changed radically on 1 August 1989 when the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force. That is why this section of articles deals with copyright in works made before 1 August 1989 (and the next section deals with copyright in works made after that date).

UK law applying to copyright in artworks made before 1 August 1989 was contained in the Copyright Act 1956, which is still used today to decide whether such works are protected by copyright and who was the first copyright owner. The 1956 Act's rules for deciding first copyright ownership were very different to the ones operating under the 1988 Act today. For example, under the old regime the first copyright owner of commissioned portrait paintings or commissioned prints was the commissioner, unless the original commission agreement stated otherwise. And the first owner of copyright in photographs was the person who owned the material on which the image was made (say, a newspaper in the case of free-lance photographers given film by their commissioning editors).

Also, under the 1956 Act's regime, the length of copyright could vary depending on the artistic medium and, in some cases, on whether the copyright work was published. For example, in the case of unpublished photographs and prints, the length of copyright was determined by whether such works had been published: if they had, then copyright lasted for 50 years from the end of the year of publication; if not, copyright could last forever - until published.

These articles, from 1976 to 1985, deal with copyright basics under the 1956 Act regime, and include interesting post-bag correspondence from readers at the time. Holography was an emerging visual art medium in 1982, and one piece tackles the then contentious issue of whether such works were capable of copyright protection - which was subsequently resolved by the 1988 Act, which included them within the copyright regime.

The establishment of the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) in 1984 is reported, together with an assessment of its initial impact and reception. An extended piece in 1984 presents the case for copyright law reform, in the context of the (then) new Government's expressed willingness to consider legislation to improve all authors' intellectual property rights. Many of these suggested reforms were enacted in the 1988 Act, and are dealt with in the Current Copyright Legislation section.