For copyright to subsist in a literary work, among other requirements, it must be ‘recorded in writing or otherwise’ (CDPA 1988, s 3 (2)). If a work is created in the cloud (hosted on a server based in, say, India), how will this affect the UK’s test for copyright subsistence?

Q&As

Read full title

Produced in partnership with Robert Cumming and Chris Hoole of Appleyard Lees

Published on: 25 September 2017

At the time of drafting UK copyright legislation, the legislature’s mind was not in the cloud, but firmly on the ground. Technology has since progressed, bringing with it new technological challenges. No longer do we create work in solitude, using fixed, isolated platforms. Rather, we now work from the ‘cloud’. Our system desktops may be hosted anywhere in the world (I’m currently writing this from a server 100 miles away from my home), or you might upload documents to remote servers for access from any computer, at any time (ie Dropbox).

In the UK, under section 3 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988), literary copyright arises automatically once the work is ‘recorded’. Given that UK legislation did not envisage the

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Copyright definition

What does Copyright mean?

Any property right over certain creative works, which grants exclusive right to the owner.

UU��ֱ��

Q&As