"Copyrights allow the protection of creative media by controlling the use. By controlling the use a scarcity and demand can be created, this then leads to market value."
Architects create intangible assets. The definition being: 'identifiable non-monetary assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured, which are created through time and/or effort.' These may resemble thoughts, ideas or concepts which feature at the preliminary stage of design. It is these assets as opposed to the physical drawings or models that make the architect a desirable member to any project.
Intangible assets are the architect's unique selling point.
"Intangible content is usually difficult to create but cheap to copy."
Van Hoorebeek, Dr Mark. An Introduction to Architectural Copyright. London: RIBA. 2012
In an attempt to protect the designer's work the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 was introduced in the UK. In the USA a similar act exists the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990. However prior to this, there was no act to protect buildings in America only physical drawings and specifications were protected. A person could directly copy a building from memory or a photograph without running the risk of being penalised. Today the main principle of both acts is to acknowledge the author, ensuring that every author has the right to be identified. Intellectual property covered by the Act includes:
- Original Literary work (all architectural drawings)
- Original Dramatic work
- Original Musical work
- Original Artistic work (photo's, drawings, architecture (buildings and models) sculpture)
- Sound Recordings
- Films
Once a piece of work is produced it is automatically covered under the Copyright Act, the designer does not need to pay a fee or apply for a license. The right of the work belongs to the architect, in particular the owner or owners of the architecture practice not necessarily the person that created the design. When the architect and client engage in a project, it is normally agreed that the client has the use of the design material for that particular project only. The legal ownership of the documents are then owned by the architect. This is the case until at least 70 years after the architect's death, however this is often extended.
There are primarily two types of infringement of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988, the first being primary infringement. This relates to a direct copy of the original source. The second is indirect copying or subconscious copying, which is the more likely offense. It is quite possible that a person may indirectly copy as primary source through their subconscious, which appeared to be the case in some features of Sir Basil Spence's Coventry Cathedral (see earlier post.) A person could replica aspects of a building seen previously, without being aware of it.
There is one key point to be made with the current act. The idea/expression dichotomy:
Ideas can not be protected, however the expression of those ideas can be.
This concept makes it very difficult to prosecute anyone with copyright infringement. Problems can arise with projects completed within a similar time, as it is difficult to prove who had the idea first. As long as the ideas are expressed differently you can not be prosecuted, even if the concept and intangible assets are the same.
In order to in force the copyright act, you would firstly have to make sure the act applies to the work, i.e. it falls into one of the intellectual property categories. Secondly is the alleged copy materially the same as the source, and is the copy actually made from the source in question or is there another possibility? Lastly there needs to be proof that the designer had access to the source. Taking into account all these factors makes it very difficult to prove copyright, unless it is an act of blatant copying, and it is unfortunately the case that many acts a plagiarism often go unaccounted for.
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