can anyone give me a brief outline of 'performing rights (under copyright designs and patents act 1988)?
484456
Girl, do your own homework.
168630
In general, yes, it bans freedom of speech.  If, however, a company (say a privately owned nightclub) refuses to play a song within its doors because it does not like the messages in the song, the club's owners are within *their* rights to do so.  Does that ban creativity?  Not really, since the club owners aren't telling the artist that he/she can never play it or record it anywhere.  They aren't silencing the artist, they're merely not supporting them.  Now if the government showed up at the doors of the artist and forbid them from having anything ever to do with the song, that would be spitting on freedom of speech.  There's the difference.
192551
What does copyright protect?\n\nCopyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed\n\nhttp://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
377104
http://www.copyright.gov/\nhttp://www.copyright.com/
689121
this sounds like a concept that is specific to UK law. there is a definition in the source below but you might need to use edit/find to find the specific reference
856681
Go here for everything about copyrights:\n\nhttp://www.copyright.gov/\n\nYour specific item is called a "Visual Arts" work:\n\nhttp://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html\n\nGood luck!
520341
Not sure if it's complete, but\nhttp://www.swarb.co.uk/acts/1979CustomsandExciseManagementAct.shtml
1183178
Try this link..you may find the answer there:-\n\nhttp://uk.ask.com/web?q=Legislative+and+Regulatory+Reform+Bill%3F+&qsrc=0&o=0&dm=ctry\n\nwww.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/bill_for_better_regulation/
495649
nope you won't get sued for that. But that depends upon the depth of how you'll gonna use it. Actually i am a singer/songwriter myself and have lots of my stuff copyrighted already. As far as i know, if you will use our stuff commercially or for personal gain, you need to recognize the composer AND pay their royalties. Just be careful though. It would be best to contact the maker of those animations and talk with them on how to go about the issue. :-)
687
As I understand it, the song is in the public domain, not the performance of it.  Any copyright you might obtain would extend to your performance only.  The song itself would remain in public domain.
968392
Do not listen to those other people in what they responded. They have no clue. First of all, if it is a product (not like music etc..) you may want to seek PATENT protection, not copyright protection. Go get a couple hundred bucks and go speak to a PATENT ATTORNEY. You are going to have to pay for a professional opinion, one way or another.
921967
go to \n\nhttp://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/19980029.htm
977225
Very little, if anything.\n\nUnder some of the older international copyright treaties, the phrase "all rights reserved" had a specific legal meaning. But under most modern copyright treaties, that's no longer necessary.
789864
General opinion would be based on the following:-\n\n1.you would need to tell me exactly how long would you hang before you have made your comission on the interest.\n2.Who owns the masters\n3.who would own the copyright\n4What contracts would you expect me to sign up to and are these contracts approved by the musicians union in the UK???\n\nThese are questions all new comers to the music business should want to know the answers to. I am not looking to sign sign up but I hope the above is informative to any one who is interested.\n\n~v~
494931
If you don't have a record label to do these things for you, a good bet would be to get a creative commons licence for works you would like to distribute to the public domain. More information on this can be found at creativecommons.org.\n\nCreative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. They have built upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach.
9639
http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/\n\nHeres a start for you.
102150
The other poster was right about some things but misspoke about others. This is best answered by the USPTO themselves:\n\nWhat Is a Patent?\n\nA patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions.\n\nThe right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.\n\nWhat Is a Trademark or Servicemark?\n\nA trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks.\n\nTrademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office. The registration procedure for trademarks and general information concerning trademarks is described in a separate pamphlet entitled "Basic Facts about Trademarks".\n\nWhat Is a Copyright?\n\nCopyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly.\n\nThe copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine. Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.\n*********************************************************\nRE: Trademarks -- Their use is not indefinite as long as you continue to use the mark. There are deadlines to pay attention to -- between the 5th & 6th year of registration as well as at the 10 yr, 20 yr, 30 yr etc \n\nRE: Copyrights -- Yes, a copyright comes into existence once something is in a "fixed, tangible form," however, registering your copyright provides you with many rights that should be considered.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!