Celebrating World Book and Copyright Day

World Book and Copyright Day is a global tribute to books, reading, publishing and copyright, which is celebrated around the world each year.

The celebration is organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which describes the event as a “celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading”.

The UK’s version of the event, World Book Day, is a charity event that began in 1998 and is held annually on the first Thursday in March.

What is copyright, who owns it and how long does it last?

Copyright is a type of intellectual property right that provides the author of certain works with protection and control over their rights in relation to the work. In essence, a copyright owner can prevent the unauthorised copying of their protected work.

For a work (i.e. a book) to qualify for copyright protection in the UK, it must fall into one of the categories of work protected under copyright law and have been created by a qualifying person (e.g. a British citizen).

The categories of work in which copyright may arise include original literary, musical, dramatic and other artistic works. In general, the author that created one of those categories of work will be the first copyright owner (though there are certain exceptions, for example works created during the course of employment often belong to the employer). As such, the first author of a book will benefit from copyright - provided the author is from the UK or first publishes the book in the UK.

Copyright arises automatically, without the need to apply for or register it, and in relation to literary, musical, dramatic and other artistic works, copyright in the UK lasts from the date of creation until 70 years after the author’s death.

What happens when copyright expires?

Copyright law is intended to prevent the copying of a protected work. For example, duplicating the work, performing the work in public and making an adaptation of the work are amongst some acts that infringe copyright.

When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. This means that any third party is legally permitted to use the works, to copy, share, adapt or otherwise use, without infringing the owner’s copyright.

This has been seen recently when the copyright for the well-known literary character, Winnie the Pooh, (and some other characters from the original books) expired in 2021 and filmmakers turned the beloved children’s character into an upcoming horror movie. Prior to the expiration of the copyright, this movie would not have been possible without infringing the copyright in the original work. Though it is notable that the filmmakers were unable to incorporate Tigger into the movie as the copyright for the character has not yet expired.

The term of copyright protection in the United States differs to that in the UK but this year sees a plethora of well-known and notable books enter the public domain, including To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Men without Women by Ernest Hemingway, The Big Four by Agatha Christie and the last two short stories in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Now that the term of copyright protection has expired, those works can all be used freely by anyone – the game is afoot!

As we mark World Book and Copyright Day by celebrating the well-loved literary works of the past, we also look forward with interest to see how those works that are no longer protected by copyright may be put to new and reimagined use in future.