Every engineer reading this book is a copyright owner and even' engineering company also owns copyright. The reason is that this particular legal right applies automatically to an immense range of material. Copyright is associated with every literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, to sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes. The implications for the engineer are clear for the items in the second part of the list, but the definition of 'literary work' is sufficiently broad to cover engineering reports and specifications, and computer software; engineering drawings are classified as 'artistic works'. The legal right comes into effect automatically, there is no need to register it or take any action there is nowhere in the UK that copyright can be registered. Copyright does not protect an idea or a concept, it protects the way in which the idea is expressed, the precise words or the actual drawing. There is no test for literary or artistic merit but the work must be originall it must be created by the engineer and not copied from something else, and the creator must have contributed skill or labour.

Inspec keywords: law; copyright

Other keywords: copyright; law; legal aspect

Subjects: Legal aspects