2011/10/24 Chris Taggart <[email protected]>: > Francis > I think that's an interesting question, and a non-trivial one. > Have spoken with some in govt about this, and I don't think it's entirely > clear that a court would enforce the copyright on annual reports (though > you're the lawyer, I am not). Obviously photos within them, other aspects,
I have absolutely no doubt a court would enforce the copyright on an annual report (unless it was composed of non IP judges perhaps). There's no doubt that copyright subsists in its maker and any copying of it is, without more, an infringement. > and even the reports have copyright, but does the role as public documents > override this in any way (i.e. if you can't email a company report to your No. There's no "public document" exception. > financial advisor for analysis does it 'work'). There's also the question of > whether they are also like press releases, designed by their nature to be > distributed. I think it would be tough to argue there's an implied licence to re-publish them on a company analysis website. > As I said, I am not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that if a company were > to enforce the copyright on the annual report, it would call into question > the whole purpose of annual reports. If the report is obtained from Companies House you can take advantage of section 47, which I suggest you have a read through as its quite interesting: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/47 Which means you can certainly take necessary information, mail it to your financial adviser and so on. -- Francis Davey _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
