A great deal seems to have happened in the five years since the last edition, not only to publishing law in the UK but equally to communication and publishing technologies and platforms worldwide. Copyright, in particular, has been under almost constant scrutiny both in the EU and the UK. Major extensions and revisions to UK copyright exceptions in 2014 (including extended quotation, research and education and library exceptions, together with new exceptions for ‘parody’, and ‘text and data mining’) have required a new chapter on copyright exceptions, licensing and Open Access (Chapter 3), to follow immediately after the main chapter on copyright (Chapter 2). This replaces the previous coverage of the old ‘permitted acts’ chapter (previously Chapter 9), and we hope this re-arrangement will prove helpful and more logical. In the process, we now have fourteen rather than thirteen chapters, but we have tried to delete almost as much obsolete material as we have added new text.
Other new sections include fuller coverage of ‘collective licensing’, ‘Creative Commons’ and ‘Open Access’, together with new discussion of the copyright implications of ‘user-generated works’ (such as uploads to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), which are now a major form of self-publishing on a vast, worldwide, scale. Updating the section ‘Copyright: the way ahead’ in Chapter 2 remains difficult in a time of constant change, but despite occasional calls for it to be swept away no-one has yet found a better way of protecting the creativity and investment of authors and publishers than copyright, providing the essential balance between protecting rightsholders’ and users’ needs is maintained. Chapter 7 is updated to include the Defamation Act 2013, while Chapter 12 includes coverage of the sale of digital content and information requirements on online traders.
Taking account of all this remains a considerable challenge, so this book is increasingly a collaborative effort between specialist media lawyers and the publishers, authors and others who have to put it all into practice. We owe particular thanks to the following long-suffering friends and colleagues: Liv Vaisberg of the Federation of European Publishers, for commenting on EU material in Chapter 1, to Florian Koempel at the Publishers Association and Hugo Cox at PRS for Music for detailed comments on Chapter 2, and to Florian (again), Sarah Faulder of the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS), and Lynette Owen for reviewing, respectively, new coverage of the 2014 exceptions, new sections on ‘collective licensing’, and new material on ‘Creative Commons and Open Access’ in the new Chapter 3. New chapter 4 on ‘other rights’ benefitted greatly from updated material by Andy Davis of the British Library on the PLR scheme, and from Reema Selhi at the Design and Artists Collecting Society on ‘artist’s resale right’. Kate Pool of the Society of Authors and Kevin Stewart of Contracts People once again kindly lent us their invaluable experience of authors’ contracts in Chapter 5. Mark Majurey of Taylor & Francis and William Bowes of Cambridge University Press helped us considerably once again with comments on Chapter 5, while James Shirras of Film Finances Ltd again reviewed the section on ‘film rights’, and Lynette Owen added her considerable expertise to coverage of rights in general in Chapter 6. Annie la Paz of Macmillan helped untangle the continuing need for printers’ and publishers’ details in Chapter 7, and Caroline Brazier and Andy Davis at the British Library kindly helped to keep the ‘legal deposit’ requirements (now including e-deposit) up to date.
In the new Chapter 10, Mark Seeley, General Counsel of Elsevier, once again kindly contributed substantial new material on US copyright law, and Claire Anker of the Publishers Association reviewed the increasingly important section on ‘piracy’.
Thanks are also due to the following from Taylor Wessing for their invaluable help: Tim Pinto and Suzy Shinner on defamation, confidentiality and privacy, Adam Rendle on copyright infringement, Debbie Heywood and Nick Cody on sale of goods, consumer protection and advertising, Sally Annereau on data protection and Robert Vidal and Louisa Penny on distribution and competition. Thanks also to Andi Terziu and Olivia Brown for their invaluable help and contributions.
Any errors and inaccuracies are still all our own work. We have, once again, tried to foresee at least the major likely developments at the date given below, but this remains a fast-moving area of law, and if in doubt after that date it may always be wise to check with a publishing lawyer.
Hugh Jones
Christopher Benson
Brighton and London
February 2016