It has been highly publicised that the Duchess of Sussex has taken legal action against the Mail on Sunday and their parent company Associated Newspapers Limited regarding an alleged breach of copyright.

In particular the Duchess is claiming her copyright was breached when the newspaper published an excerpt of a letter she had written to her father.

While there are more complicated aspects to the high-profile case, we look into the fundamentals of copyright of written work, and in which circumstances reproduction may be allowed.

Original literary works are one of many group of creations which attract copyright automatically. The copyright of written work belongs to the author of the work unless there is an agreement that someone else will be the owner or if a copyright work created by an employee for his or her employer in which case the employer will likely be the owner and lasts 70 years after the death of the author. The protection of copyright means that no one can copy, distribute, adapt, or reproduce the work without approval of the copyright holder. However, if the copyright holder gives permission, copyright of a work can be licensed or sold to another party.

There are exceptions to copyright which do allow copying or similar activities of a protected work. These exceptions include the work’s use during:• Private study or non-commercial research,
• Criticism, review and reporting current events,
• Teaching,
• Helping people with disabilities,
• Parody, caricature, and pastiche,
• Fair dealing,
• Instances where sufficient credit to the copyright owner is given.

Associated Newspapers Limited are likely to rely on some of these exceptions for their defence, along with whether the letter was original and thus attracts copyright at all.

If you have any questions regarding copyright protection or infringement, please get in touch with us.