Multiple choiceQuestion 1 · Recall
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By the end you can explain what copyright is, why legislation is needed, what it protects (including software), and what counts as infringement — with the consequences for the people involved.
Writing software, composing music or taking a photograph takes time, skill and money. Digital copies, however, cost almost nothing and are perfect: the thousandth copy of a program is identical to the first.
Without a rule, anyone could copy a program and sell it, and the person who spent a year building it would earn nothing. Fewer people would bother to create software at all.
Copyright is the law that fixes this. It gives the creator control over copying and distribution for a period of time, so they can earn from their work.
Copyright
A legal right that gives the creator of an original work control over how it is copied, published, distributed, adapted and performed, for a fixed period of time.
In the UK, copyright arises automatically as soon as an original work is recorded in a fixed form. There is no registration and no fee — the © symbol is a reminder, not a requirement.
Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself.
| Protected | Not protected |
|---|---|
| source code and object code (software is treated as a literary work) | the idea or method behind a program |
| books, articles, documentation | facts and data on their own |
| music, lyrics, sound recordings | a title or a name (these may be trademarks) |
| photographs, drawings, graphics | a general style or technique |
| films, video, broadcasts | an algorithm as an abstract idea |
| databases and their arrangement | anything you write yourself |
That last row matters: your code is your copyright the moment you write it, unless your employment contract says otherwise (work created by an employee in the course of their job normally belongs to the employer).
Copyright law exists to balance two things: rewarding creators, and letting society use and build on their work. The legislation is needed because:
The owner does not just get "the right to copy". They get several separate rights, and they can grant them separately:
This is why a licence matters so much: it is the owner's permission for you to do some of these things, on their terms. Buying a copy is not the same as owning the copyright.
Copyright is limited in time, after which the work is in the public domain and anyone may use it.
For a typical literary, artistic or software work in the UK, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Sound recordings and films are usually protected for 70 years from release, and typographical arrangements of published editions for 25 years.
The exact numbers are less important for the exam than the principle: protection lasts a long time but does not last forever, so old works become free to use.
Infringement is doing any of the owner's exclusive acts without permission or a legal exception. For software this is usually called software piracy.
| Form | What happens |
|---|---|
| softlifting | one licensed copy is installed on more machines than the licence allows, or shared with friends |
| internet piracy | the program is uploaded or downloaded from unauthorised sites or file-sharing networks |
| hard-disk loading | a seller installs an unlicensed copy on computers it sells |
| counterfeiting | fake copies are made and packaged to look genuine and sold as real |
| renting | copies are lent or rented out without permission |
| cracking | technical protection (product keys, activation) is bypassed |
Even using unlicensed images or music in a school project or a company website is infringement — it is not limited to programs.
The law allows limited exceptions so that copyright does not block ordinary life: private study and research, criticism and review, reporting current events, parody, and some educational use. These are narrow, and they do not permit you to copy a program and sell it or to publish someone else's image as your own.
The consequences of infringement fall on several parties:
Worked example: Worked example: the school website
A school's IT technician builds a new website. They download a stock photograph from an image search, a font from a random website, and a small JavaScript library from a code-sharing site. Nothing is paid for and no licence is checked.
Explain the copyright problems and what should have been done.