Law Summary.

In brief; key points will be built upon over the next couple days.

Introduction.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (EU, ARTICLE 10)
Update: Leveson Inquiry.
Chairman of Inquiry: Lord Justice Leveson.

*Two-part inquiry launched on 13 July 2011 investigating role of press and police following phone hacking scandal at 'News of the World'

*"Who guards the guardians?" Aim to examine the ethics of the press.

*First part of inquiry published 29 November 2012.

CIVIL LAW: Disputes between individuals.

CRIMINAL LAW: Against the community. 

STANDARDS OF PROOF: 

*"the balance of probability" (CIVIL)

*"beyond reasonable doubt" (CRIMINAL)

THREE SOURCES OF LAW:

*Common Law

*Statute Law (Parliament)

*EU (Human Rights)

RULE AGAINST PRIOR RESTRAINT

*Remedy to follow publication rather than proceed it.

Update: Injunction to undermine above (to perform/restrain against act)

PUBLIC INTEREST as common defence for Journalists.

*Regarding information that is valuable to society as a whole.

The Art Of Copyright.

In Journalistic terms, Copyright refers to the "branch of the law that enables Journalism to exist as a business."

It was the 1911 Copyright Act that made the breach of Copyright a crime. Everybody has the right to their own "intellectual property" that prevents their work from being stolen or exploited by the public. They can however, either choose to keep ownership or "buy out" the commercial rights (but retain moral rights as sanctioned under the 1988 Copyright Act). 

It is crucial as a Journalist to remember that there is no Copyright in ideas.

This can be made clearer in "The Da Vinci Code Case" where two people sued author Dan Brown claiming they had already published the premise to his novel "The Da Vinci Code" some years earlier. Their case was lost however as there was no substantial proof that Brown had "lifted" anything from the previous book.

Accordingly, it is safe to re-do old stories as long as the source has been accredited and some of it is your own work.

You are also allowed to use Copyright in the context of:

• Comment.
• Criticism.
• Review.

There can be no Copyright in information. Only liable if the information has been turned into news by a Journalist.

This is where the old Journalistic trick of fair dealing or "lifting" comes into play. You can "lift" quotes from articles as long as you credit the source and 

it is a matter of public interest. "Passing off" is out of the question as you could be in breach of Copyright law and could be sued for compensation if it can be proved that you have stolen the work. To be protected from Copyright, the piece of work must be original.

Creative Commons allows people to pre-licence work for anyone to use but this is often limited. It can also apply 70 years after the death of an author or, in terms of music, 50 years from the year in which the work was created.