Who owns copyright?

The general rule is that the author or maker of the work owns copyright. This may not be the case if:

• The author / maker has assigned their copyright to another person
• The author / maker is an employee and created the work in the course of their employment
• The work is a commissioned photograph, engraving or painting

Where there is more than one author, the copyright is jointly owned by all the joint authors.

Copyright ownership is different from physical ownership: just because you own a CD or a painting does not mean you own the copyright in that work.