Feeling confused by content ownership laws in the UK?
Regardless of whether you’d like to learn more about the relevant regulations around content ownership or you’re eager to utilise user-generated content to promote your particular brand, we can help clear up any confusion.
Simply carry on reading to discover the meaning of content ownership, some of the various ways that content can be protected in the UK, and whether brands have legal ownership over user-generated content.
What is content ownership?
So, do brands have legal ownership over content created by their users? Before we can answer this all-important question, let’s bring it back to basics and explain what content ownership actually means.
Content ownership simply refers to the legal and ethical rights you have when you create or distribute content. This content can take many forms including text, videos, music, and digital advertisements.
Depending on the type of content you’ve created, you may be able to add another layer of protection in the UK by exploring intellectual property protections such as patents, copyright, and trademarks.
Brands commonly create a wide range of content to promote their products and services. For example, if a brand were to create a video demonstrating how to use their new product, this content would be their intellectual property and would entitle them to automatic copyright protection.
Under copyright law in the UK, as per The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, any individual or organisation that used this copyrighted material without the brand’s explicit permission or a valid licence to do so, would be infringing upon their content ownership and copyright protection.
Why is content ownership important?
Content ownership is vital to ensuring you have the proper legal and ethical permissions to use and distribute content. If you’re not the creator of the content or you don’t have explicit permission to use it, the owner may decide to take legal action against you through civil courts.
Do brands have legal ownership over content?
Often, when people ask the question ‘do brands have legal ownership over content’, they’re referring to the content created by other users about their brand, also known as user-generated content (UGC).
This content offers an authentic perspective to brand marketing and can take the form of text, videos, images, and reviews. However, it’s important to bear in mind that brands have no legal ownership over user-generated content.
Instead, the user would need to provide the brand with explicit permission to utilise their content for advertising purposes. If this permission isn’t provided, the rules and regulations around content ownership in the UK would be violated.
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