COPYRIGHT

Permissions and prohibitions

The National Portrait Gallery's website is here for your enjoyment. Without further permission, you may:

• access, download and/or print contents for non-commercial private research and study purposes
• print forms to enable you to order products and services from the NPG.

However, if you wish to use this material in any other way than those specified above, you must seek separate permission.

• To licence images for reproduction, please contact the Picture Library
• To licence text, please contact Publications

Without written confirmation of such separate permission in respect of the materials and works included on this website, all other acts are prohibited including but not limited to the following:

• reproduction of any kind in any medium.
• storage in any medium including extraction into any other database, computer programme or website.
• public performance, broadcast or display.
• rental, leasing or lending.
• extraction, manipulation or altering in any respect.
  

This right is recognised in international treaties around the world, on the Internet as well as all other media.

The way that copyright law works, in practice, is very complex and subtle so it is essential to get detailed, expert advice on each individual case. The idea, however, is beautifully simple. Here is a quick guide to the history of copyright in the UK.

History
The basic UK legislation is around 200 years old. It was produced in response to a technological threat posed by the rapid proliferation of the new copying technology of engraving. The legislation was pushed through parliament as a result of intense lobbying by William Hogarth, one of Britains leading artists at the end of the 18th Century. He had worked long and hard to achieve his status as an artist and satirist, and was angry to see inferior copies of his work being sold in large quantities, for which he received no payment. The first UK copyright legislation was guided by principle that:

• it was in the general interest that people keep creating new interesting works in the arts and sciences
• people would not create these works without some guarantee that their efforts would be rewarded
• the best way to do this was to give them an exclusive right to their own work
• so anyone else, wishing to exploit their work, would have to reward them for it.

Under UK copyright law, you are automatically the owner of copyright in any work you produce, be it poems, stories, pictures or sculptures. This right is subject to contract so that it is assumed, for practical purposes, that the rights to all the work you produce 'during the course of employment' belongs to your employer.

Intellectual property
One of the strange things about copyright, is that ownership of this right can be completely distinct and separate from ownership of material objects. For example, the National Portrait Gallery owns a number of paintings and photographs (objects), which it cannot copy without permission, as it does not own the necessary rights. In recognition of this distinction, copyright is known as an 'intellectual property right'.

The term 'intellectual property' is a little confusing, since it seems to suggest that people can own ideas - they can't. They can only own the expression of those ideas.

There are many other intellectual property rights, including trademark, patent and moral rights. To find out more, please see the copyright links, below.

Copyright and the National Portrait Gallery
As a National Gallery, we have a public duty, not only to display and conserve the works in our collection, but also to ensure that the works are correctly represented in reproductions and publications of these works. As a result of continuing research, from time to time, adjustments are made in the attributions of both artists and sitters for paintings. It is also extremely important that pictures are represented in their most recent state of restoration. There are, in many other cases, issues for the artists, sitters, donors or lenders of works in the collection, to which, as an institution, we have to be sensitive. For these reasons, we need to control very tightly the circumstances and quality of reproductions from the collection.

In order to do this, we have a very active picture library and licencing department, which loans transparencies for the purpose of reproduction. We also exert strict controls on all photography in the Gallery, which is allowed only on the understanding that copyright rests with the us and that any further reproduction deriving from the resulting photographic materials is subject to our written permission.

The National Portrait Gallery is a strong supporter of free entry - we do not think visitors should have to pay in order to see the collection. Those who may never be able to visit us can still enjoy and learn about the collection through the images published in books, magazines, on the television and the Internet. The Picture Library raises money by licensing such reproduction, which supports the 'free entry' policy and the Gallery's main functions in looking after its paintings, drawings, etchings and sculptures, and in teaching people about the works.

Research
We have an ongoing programme of copyright research, in collaboration with a variety of other organisations. This is to ensure that the rights information on works in our Primary and Reference collections, maintained on our copyright database in the Picture Library, is accurate and up-to-date.

You may be able to help us. Despite our efforts to trace information on artists and photographers, or their descendents and legatees, the copyright status and ownership of certain works in our collection is still unclear. We would welcome any information which you believe might be helpful in this respect.

Please direct this information to bhorrocks@npg.org.uk

www.intellectual-property.gov.uk

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All images and text are subject to copyright protection. 08 August 2008