Brian Butterworth wrote:
Does the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988 cover the subtitles associated with a TV channel? Would implementing a "search" feed, rather than a complete feed be OK with the Act?
I would guess (IANAL) subtitles are part of the work, so would be copyrighted for things like dramas (as it's basically the spoken section of the script, more if it includes noises), and you might have fair use for news broadcasts and the like. Google seems to think storing everything for search is okay, so you might be okay there...
Annoyingly, the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 - http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20020033.htm - "permit[s], without infringement of copyright, the transfer of copyright works to formats accessible to visually impaired persons" (e.g. someone can create a braille version of a book if one does not already exist without infringing the copyright of the book), but no such luck for deaf people and unsubtitled works, or any other disability.
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