Copyright helps stop other people using your creative work without permission. Identify what work is protected through copyright, how to license your work so others can use it and how to check if you can use music, images or other content created by others.
Copyright does not protect your ideas. It protects how you have expressed that idea in a fixed format. Copyright covers creative work such as:
You do not have to do anything to register copyright in the UK. The protection automatically applies when you create original work.
Copyright prevents people from using, or profiting from, your work without your permission, but also gives you moral rights, including the right to be acknowledged as its creator.
Although copyright exists automatically, there are things you can do to protect your work and show that you are its original creator, like:
Copyright is recognised internationally, but protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights can vary country by country.
Adding a copyright symbol (©) to your work can help show who owns it. You can mark your work with the copyright symbol, your name or business name and the year of creation. Doing this does not create copyright, but it shows that a work is protected and helps prove ownership.
You do not need to give up ownership of your creative work to let someone else use it. For example, a trainer may license their materials for use by other organisations but they still retain copyright ownership.
If you decide to allow someone else to use your original work, you can:
Consider using a Creative Commons licence if you want others to easily find, share and use your work without losing ownership.
Content that appears online is not automatically free to use. Check specialist sites for royalty-free assets and always check that your use of creative content complies with the terms of any licence.
Before using an image, content, music or anything else that you have not personally created, check if you have permission to do so.
Always check:
Businesses often hire someone to provide them with creative work, including:
You may assume that you automatically own any creative work that you pay for, but that is not always the case. If you hire a person or business to produce creative work for your business use the contract to document who owns the work and any restrictions on how the work can be used by the creator or by your business.