Page 98 - Law and the Media

Copyright
It is an offence to make for sale or hire, to sell or let on hire, to exhibit in public by way of
trade, or to import into the United Kingdom other than for private use, any article that is
known to be an infringing copy. It is also an offence to distribute articles that are known to
be infringing copies for the purpose of trade, or to such extent as to affect prejudicially the
owner of the copyright.

The criminal offences are used mainly in relation to video and DVD pirates, who infringe
copyright in films, and compact disc pirates, who infringe copyright in sound recordings. The
penalties, which were increased in 1983 to take account of the gravity of piracy, include:

On trial on indictment, two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine
On summary trial, two months’ imprisonment and/or a fine of £2000.

The police have powers to search premises when criminal offences are suspected.

3.10 Other rights

3.10.1 False attribution of authorship

Damages are available if a person’s name is put to a work that he did not author in such a
way as to imply that he did. Publishing or selling such a work also gives rise to damages. In
Moore v News of the World Ltd (1972), the writer Dorothy Squires recovered the sum of £100
for false attribution of authorship. The newspaper had interviewed her and published an
article stated to be by her. She claimed that she had not used the words published.

Publications that make up quotations are therefore at risk of a claim for false attribution of
authorship.

The right under the CDPA extends to authors of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works,
as well as film directors, who are deemed to be the author of their film.

3.10.2 Moral rights

Prior to the CDPA, copyright was considered to be an economic right. The CDPA
incorporated the provisions of the Berne Convention and the European legal concept of an
author’s moral right into the English law of copyright. A moral right is not an economic right.
It has two aspects: the right of paternity and the right of integrity.

Moral rights actually have little relevance or effect in English law. In European countries
moral rights are inalienable – in other words, they cannot be waived. Under the CDPA, an
author has the power to waive his moral rights. Such a waiver must be in writing. An author
can even consent to an infringement of his moral rights. It is normal for the author of a
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