The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

The Act protects the intellectual property of individuals and requires that permission of the owner of the intellectual property is sought before any use of it is made.

The Act

This includes storage and display on the intranet, extranet, internet or other electronic information services.

Organisation web pages should not contain, or distribute, text or images to which a third party holds an intellectual property right, without the express written permission of the author.

The author may have quoted other people’s material and if this is the case, such a third party would also need to give permission.

Records management considerations

Corporate web pages where information is published should be checked for infringement of the Act and/or that necessary permissions or acknowledgements have been given.

If there is any doubt, check with your legal advisers. 

Related articles

Back to top