Ceremony Ideas and Resources ...
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Copyright, plagiarism
and your ceremony
The Attorney General's Department has
advised
that poetry and other readings can be recited (Reading or reciting a
reasonable portion of a published literary or dramatic work in public,
provided the work is acknowledged, is an exception to copyright, and
therefore it is not necessary to obtain permission) and that recorded
music can be played at a wedding without being in breach of the
Copyright Act (1968) or the provisions of Performing Rights, controlled
by
Phonographic
Performance Company of Australia Limited (PPCA), which have waived
the requirement to obtain a licence for either the performance of music
or playing of sound recordings within a wedding ceremony.
APRA has exempted
the performance of live music at a wedding
reception from the requirement to obtain a public performance licence.
However, you must get a licence from PPCA for public playing of sound
recordings at your reception.
Note that these waivers are ceremony specific. If you hold any other
type of ceremony in a public place, then you must obtain licenses.
Copyright means that the owner of the Copyright has the exclusive right
to publish, reproduce (by any means), publicly perform, communicate and
adapt any work of original expression. This right arises as soon
as an author creates an original work and fixes it in a tangible medium
- that is something that can be seen (paper, video, CD etc).
Because copyright covers "original musical, artistic, literary
and dramatic works " - copyright issues must be considered in relation
to the poems and music you might use in your ceremony, and also in
relation to the ceremonies written by others, whether or not they have
been published. Copyright is both an economic right and a property
right. That is, the ownership of the materials (which, in the case
of ceremonies, one could define as groups of words particular words in
a particular order) vests in the creator of the "work". The property in
this case, therefore, just happens to be intellectual. Copyright lasts
for 70 years after the end of the calendar year in which the author
died (from 1 January 2005 the term was extended under the terms
of Australia's Free Trade Agreement with the US). More information
about copyright can be found on the
Copyright Council
of Australia
website.
Plagiarism is the use of others intellectual property (that is, the
original work they created) without permission and passing that
intellectual property off as your own creation.
There are a number of common misconceptions about the use of the
intellectual property of others in ceremonies of all kinds:
Misconception
1: If something is on the web
it is in the public domain
The contents of a website are protected by copyright in exactly the
same was as are the contents of a book or magazine. A work only
passes into the public domain when the rights expire - 50 or 70 years,
depending on the nature of the work after the end of the calendar year
in which the creator died. Copyright is a property right, so the right
becomes part of the author's estate on his or her death. However, even
if the author is long dead, copyright may still subsist in the work if
the copyright has been renewed by the heirs or if the source is a
copyrighted collection.
Misconception
2: You can use 10% of any work without permission
The 'fair dealing' provision of
the Act refers to 'less than a substantial part', there is no set
amount as what is regarded to be substantial will vary from work to
work. Fair dealing applies only to quoting for purposes of criticism
and review, and for
personal research and study. Clearly none of these provisions apply to
use and/or publication as part of a ceremony.
Misconception
3: You can make compilations of music from your own CDs to play at your
ceremony.
Wrong, you must obtain a license.
Information about licenses can be obtained from the
Australian Performing
Right Association,
and the
Phonographic
Performance Company of Australia Limited
Misconception
4: If there isn't a copyright statement attached to a work it is in the
public domain, and can be freely used.
Original works are copyrighted whether
or not they have a statement attached. Copyright exists automatically,
both in Australia and overseas, the minute an original work is
committed to a tangible medium - that is, something that can be seen.
It is not necessary to publish the work for it to be copyrighted.
Confusion is sometimes caused by the facility in the United States to
register one's copyright. Such registration is a means of establishing
the date from which the rights existed in case of later dispute, but
it is not necessary to register a work, pay any
fees or fill in any forms for that work to be protected. There is
no system of copyright registration in Australia.
Misconception 5: It is all right to adapt
someone else's work without permission.
In addition to copyright, there is a right called moral
rights embedded in the Copyright Act (1968). Moral rights are the right
to be attributed (credited) correctly on the work, the right not to
have their work falsely attributed, and the right not to have their
work treated in a derogatory way. Moral rights belong to the creator of
a work in perpetuity, regardless of whether he or she still owns the
copyright, because they cannot be transferred, assigned or sold.
Misconception
6: If I was given copies of material as part of a course it is all
right to use those in a ceremony.
Educational institutions have much greater freedom to copy and provide
copies of copyrighted works to students for educational purposes. They
are covered by specific Educational Copying Licenses. It cannot be
assumed that material provided as part of a course can be used outside
that course for other purposes.
© Jennifer Cram 2005
[NOTE: In the interest of furthering the understanding of clients and
celebrants of the issues, permission is granted for celebrants to copy
and use
Copyright, plagiarism
and your ceremony above on websites or in material provided to
clients. In this specific case, attribution is not required. You may
not, however, link to this information from your website]
