AV News 178 - November 2009
Wildlife
Many wild animals, including insects, and birds are protected by the Wildlife
and Countryside Act 1981. There is no restriction on taking photographs of
any animal or bird, but the Act makes it an offence to "disturb" some species
when they are at or near their nesting places or places of shelter. This
includes disturbing them by taking photographs of them. To photograph
protected species at or near their nests or places of shelter, a photographer
must have a licence from the relevant authority: English Nature, Scottish
Natural Heritage or the Countryside Council for Wales.
A full list of protected birds can be found at:
http://www.naturenet.net/law/sched1.html
and a full list of protected animals at
http://www.naturenet.net/law/sched5.html
Copyright and Trademarks
It will sometimes be an infringement of copyright to take a photograph of a
work that is protected by copyright.
Copyright is infringed by making a copy of all or a substantial part of a
copyright work, without the consent of the copyright owner. It would
therefore be an infringement of copyright to take a photograph of a
copyright protected art work, or a photograph of a photograph. It isn't an
infringement of copyright to take a photo of, for example, a particular
landscape or building even if the same view has been photographed many
times before. Each photo would be regarded as an independently created
work. But it might be infringement of copyright to deliberately set out to
recreate another photographer's photo.
Copyright is not infringed by the incidental inclusion of a copyright work
in a photograph. For example, copyright would not be infringed by a
photograph of a street scene in which there was advertising material on
display, but this was not the main subject of the photo.
It is not an infringement of copyright to take photographs of buildings,
sculptures and works of artistic craftsmanship that are permanently situated
in a public place or in premises that are open to the public.
Bank Notes
Taking photographs of UK bank notes is an offence unless permission has
been given in writing by the "relevant authority". The relevant authority for
English notes is the Bank of England and for Scottish and Irish notes the
relevant authority is the bank that issued the notes.
The law is stated as at 30 March 2009
Linda Macpherson
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