Contact information
Irish Copyright Licensing Agency CLG
info@icla.ie
Copyright protects the independent and original expression of ideas, information, theories, or principles in a work, but not the ideas, information, theories, or principles themselves. You can create several different works with the same subject, theme, or plot, all of which receive individual protection. For example, you can write many different books with the same plot or create many paintings with the same theme. You are also allowed to use the information in a work that is not yours, provided that you write it entirely in your own words – that is, you express it in a new way.
The object of copyright is an original work created by a human being. It can be any of the following so long as it is original and recorded in some way, be it as a hard copy or digitally:
In Ireland, laws, regulations, government decisions and material produced by government departments are protected by ‘Government and Oireachtas copyright’. All public service information (PSI) is made available with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence, which allows use of the works by any person. This is a decision by government to make this material ‘in the public domain’.
Copyright does not grant exclusive rights to an idea, information, or principles, but rather to the original and creative expression of these ideas as manifested in the work.
For the result of creative effort to be protected by copyright as a ‘work’, it must possess a certain level of creativity, meaning it must be sufficiently original and independent. This is often referred to as ‘exceeding the threshold of originality’. Quality or artistic merit is not required. Even a ‘poor’ or ‘ugly’ work can be protected if it results from independent and original creative work. Whether the threshold has been exceeded is determined on a case-by-case basis. A typical criterion is that no one else starting the same work would achieve the same end result.
To enjoy protection, the work must be independent and original.
The threshold of originality is evaluated differently depending on the type of work. In the case of literary works and works in the visual arts, the threshold of originality has been relatively low. Even a short poem or slogan can be protected by copyright.
Copyright law also protects certain rights similar to copyright. These are known as related rights. Related rights protect performing artists and their performances, music producers, film producers, makers of catalogues and databases, radio and TV companies, and publishers of newspapers, periodicals and books.
Related rights are similar to copyright in many ways. The main difference is the duration of protection (20 years), and there is no requirement for independence and originality to obtain related rights.
For example, copying of sound recordings and films, public performance of sound recordings directly from the recording or via radio, fall under the protection of related rights. Copying and using sound recordings, visual recordings, catalogues, and databases all require permission from the person holding the related rights.
Comprehensive databases, tables, and catalogues can enjoy protection of the database right. This protection is considerably narrower than traditional copyright and lasts for a shorter period. Database protection is in effect for 15 years after the year the work is completed. If the work is first published at a later date than when it was finished (but still within 15 years), the 15-year protection period is counted from that later date.
This protection covers catalogues, tables, and other work where a large amount of data has been compiled, as well as databases that have required significant effort in data collection or presentation. The aim is to protect the effort put into gathering data, rather than the information contained in the database or catalogue.
Copyright does not protect measurements of ingredients or other technical information, nor creations that are the result of technical instructions. However, a cookbook or an article made up of recipes, as a whole, can be independent and original and, therefore, protected by copyright. The visual presentation of a dish can also be a creative work if it is so individual and original that no one else would have achieved the same result if they had undertaken the same work.
A verse or phrase from a song can be original enough to enjoy protection, even if it consists of just a few words. Therefore, in general, you need the creator’s permission even if you only copy a few lines or a phrase from their work.
Objects of applied arts, such as furniture and clothing, are typically characterized by a specific design, determined by their function. In other words, their design is more guided by technical features than creative decisions. Objects such as jewellery, furniture, or clothing can be protected by registering the industrial design. However, if these objects possess a sufficient degree of originality, some aspects of the design may also be protected by copyright.
In general, explanatory drawings of the use of an appliance or tool, or instruction manuals, are not sufficiently independent and original to exceed the threshold of originality. The drawings do not express the creator’s creative and personal decisions at a sufficient level for no one else to be able to achieve the same result if they were to carry out the same work.
When a person makes a collection of works or other independent elements made by other creators, such as an anthology or database, that act of creating the collection can constitute an intellectual creation in its own right through the original selection and/or arrangement of the contents and this will be protected by copyright.
The protection of any collection refers only to their structure as a form of expression of the selection or arrangement of their contents and does not extend to the content itself. The protection of collections is separate from the protection that the contents may or may not have.
Irish Copyright Licensing Agency CLG
info@icla.ie