What is a work?
Not everything that can be created will have copyright. You can create a wedding cake, and you create a huge splash when you bomb into the swimming pool from a three-metre diving board. However, cakes and splashes will not get copyright. Here is an alphabetical list of the categories of the works in which copyright can subsist:
- Artistic works
- Broadcasts
- Cinematograph films
- Computer programs
- Literary works
- Musical works
- Programme-carrying signals
- Published editions
- Sound recordings
Many of these have subcategories, as you will see — artistic works and literary works in particular. Please remember — it is worth emphasising this point — that if what you create is not one of the works listed above, copyright will not subsist.
A company called Waylite Diaries tried to claim copyright in the layout of its week-by-week diary page as an artistic work. The Court dismissed the claim on the basis that a simple diary page is not a work that could have copyright.
Now, let’s review the basic requirements for copyright to subsist.