Page 107 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
contract, which may assign copyright. If a sub-contractor such as a web-site designer is
engaged to create a web site, he will be the owner of the copyright unless there is agreement
to the contrary.

In circumstances where a media company commissions work by a freelancer or sub-
contractor, the media company must ensure that it obtains full assignment, in other words full
ownership, of the entire copyright in order to exploit the work fully in all formats. In the
absence of full ownership, the freelancer or sub-contractor may assert that the media
company is only able to use the work in a certain way. For example, a media company which
commissions a freelancer to write an article for a newspaper may find that it is unable to
reproduce the article online in the absence of a full assignment of copyright.

4.3.2 Pre-existing works and contributions by third parties

Rights clearance
Producers or publishers of multimedia products that include or consist of pre-existing rather
than original works, or include contributions by third parties, must ensure that they have
obtained rights clearance in respect of all the pre-existing works and contributions. This can
be a lengthy and expensive exercise.

Rights clearance involves satisfying:

Copyright – by licence
Moral rights – by waiver, and
Performers’ rights, such as actors or musicians – by consent to exploit any
performers’ rights under Section 180 of the CDPA.

For example, an online magazine or a web page accessed via an interactive television service
may include pre-existing material such as articles that have previously been published
elsewhere, photographs, graphics or other moving images. It may also include contributions
by a third party such as interviews or performances by actors or singers. The producer or
publisher of the magazine or interactive television service must ensure that he has obtained
licences, waivers and consents from each copyright owner and performer for permission to
‘copy, adapt and issue copies’ to the public.

Producers of live web cams and broadcasts or ‘reality TV’ programmes must be particularly
careful to ensure that those appearing in their programmes do not breach the copyright of
others. This can easily occur when photographs or other images subject to copyright are
shown or songs or music are played during the broadcast. The problem can be avoided by
a slight time delay in the broadcast during which any infringing material can be removed.

Many large media organizations have programme libraries and archives. A producer or
publisher can carry out a search in respect of pre-existing material to determine whether
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