It is hoped that the following provides users with a helpful overview to the law of copyright and the use of copyright material and how it relates to the use of the Ulverscroft Digital download service and its content. The information is extracted from the website of The Copyright Licensing Agency.

Copyright: what is it?
Copyright is one of the main types of intellectual property - others include designs, patents and trademarks. Intellectual property allows a person to own things they create in the same way as something physical can be owned. It is the right to prevent others copying or reproducing someone's work.

When does copyright arise?
Copyright arises automatically when a work that qualifies for protection is created. The work must be original in that it needs to originate with the author who will have used some judgment or skill to create the work - simply copying a work does not make it original. There is no need in the UK to register copyright. When an idea is committed to paper or another fixed form, it can be protected by copyright.

What does copyright protect?
The main categories of works currently protected include: original literary works such as novels or poems, tables or lists and computer programmes; original dramatic works such as dance or mime; original musical works, ie the musical notes themselves; original artistic works such as graphic works (paintings, drawings etc), photographs and sculptures; sound recordings; films; broadcasts; typographical arrangements (ie the layout or actual appearance) of published editions.

Who owns copyright?
As a general rule, the owner of the copyright is the person who created it, i.e. the author. An author could be the writer, the composer, the artist, the producer or the publisher or another creator depending on the type of work.

What rights does a copyright owner have?
A copyright owner has both economic and moral rights. Economic rights cover acts that only the copyright owner can do or authorise. These include the right to copy the work, distribute copies of it, rent or lend it, perform or show it, communicate it to the public (including making it available online) or adapt it (e.g. making it into a play).

Moral rights include the right to be identified as the author, the right not to have a work that they did not create falsely attributed to them and the right to object to the derogatory treatment of the work. Moral rights are rights authors retain in their works irrespective of who owns the economic rights - they can be waived, but not licensed or assigned.

Copyright infringement
It is an infringement of copyright to do any of the following acts in relation to a substantial part of a work protected by copyright without the consent or authorisation of the copyright owner: copy it; issue copies of it to the public; sell, rent or lend it to the public; perform or show it in public; communicate it to the public.

Secondary infringement may occur if someone, without the permission of the copyright owner, imports an infringing copy, possesses or deals with it or provides the means for making it.

Remedies for copyright infringement
There are certain acts conducted without a copyright owner's consent which may be classed as criminal offences and may result in fines and/or imprisonment. A person commits an offence if he knew/had reason to believe they were conducting any of these acts or that their act would cause an infringement.

A company can be guilty of copyright infringement as can an officer of the company who consented or aided the infringement.

How copyright relates to this download service
We own the copyright to all the software code we use, whether this is used as part of the download service we have developed for the use of your library under license on a PC or Mac or whether you use the download service on one of our apps. When you use our service, it is important you are aware of what items are covered by copyright, what you can do and what it is illegal to do.

Our copyright covers all parts of the download service including but not limited to software code, files, graphics, copy and the content of the titles you can download. This means all of the books on this site, both audio books (eAudio) and eBooks are protected by copyright.

Breach of copyright is illegal.

What you can do
You can basically use this service in a similar way to how you use the library service for borrowing physical books.

You can borrow an eAudio book or eBook for a period of time called the loan period, which is set by Ulverscroft in agreement with your library. You can download the title to your home computer and listen/read it on your home computer or transfer it to and listen/read it on your mobile device, or you can download and listen/read the title on our uLibrary app. This is available free of charge in the iTunes store or Google PlayStore.

The service is for your personal, non-commercial use, for the loan period only. You never own the content.

What you cannot do You cannot copy, sell, lease, lend, distribute, publicly perform, or use the content in any other manner apart from your own personal, non-commercial use. The files cannot be shared with another person. The files cannot be copied.

You cannot keep the content files after the loan period has expired.

If you have downloaded the files to your computer and/or transferred to a mobile device, you are responsible for deleting all files yourself from your computer and/or mobile device.

The files will be automatically deleted from your smartphone or tablet at the end of the loan period if you have downloaded the files using our uLibrary app.

You are in breach of the copyright license if you do not delete the files or if you copy, share or try to use the content for non-personal or commercial use.

Our files use non-intrusive security technology. We can identify when files have been made available for sale, or have been shared through the various file sharing and peer-to-peer services.

You have to be aware that if you breach the copyright license your access to the service may be suspended by Ulverscroft and/or your library and you may be prosecuted for copyright infringement.

When you download a file using our service you are deemed to have accepted our Terms of Use, which contains the above and more information.