Copyright falls under intellectual property rights. For
information on that please see here. Copyright is very important to any
creator but especially to voiceover artists. As a voiceover artist it is not legally
possible to sign away your copyright. So you will always own the
copyright to the material you recorded. Therefore your voiceover audio is only
ever licenced for use on agreed platforms. You can find further information
here. Intellectual Property Office
The laws have a framework so that people can see how work
can be used. Responsibilities of people, as well as the rights of the owner are
set out. What can you do with your work? Well you could copy, change, sell it,
share it online, rent it or prevent other people from doing those things to it. When someone hears your voice played out whether it be
online or downloaded to a device then they are interacting with copyright. The
piece of work should be either original or tangible.
So for a work to be original you must have produced it
yourself i.e. spoken it. Tangible means that the idea would have to be
expressed in some sort of physical form so when you speak a phrase then it is
only protected the moment you record it. Once recorded, it is protected.
But how do I protect my work?
As soon as your work is created or in voiceover world as
soon as you have recorded it in audio form. There is no need to register this
work unlike a patent or a trademark.
How long will your work be protected for?
A short answer is that it depends on factors such as the type
of work created and when it was made. Generally the shortest length of time for
protection is 50 years. But it could be 70 or more.
With the potential European relationship process underway, updates
to legislation and copyrighted works will continue to be protected as there are
other international treaties covering this. Examples of these treaties include
the The Berne Convention and the TRIPS agreements.
Note that copyright may not cover all forms of creative
work so Intellectual property may be more suitable. But do remember that it is illegal under UK law for a voiceover artist to sign away their copyright.
