Even if you provide all the information for the history, the writer of the history will generally own copyright, unless you reach some arrangement to the contrary.

This is because the general rule is that the “author” of a work is the first owner of copyright. When a work is commissioned, the person who creates the work is the owner of the copyright but the paying client has a licence to use the work for the purpose(s) for which it was commissioned. This general rule can be altered by an agreement.

If you want to own copyright in a particular written version of your family history, you will need to persuade the writer to assign the copyright to you. An assignment must be in writing and signed by the copyright owner to be legally effective.

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No. Copyright protects the expression of ideas or information, not the actual ideas or information themselves. Therefore individuals are free to research material and to take information, facts or ideas from other sources to write about a topic. In some cases, however, people who acquire information can be prevented from disclosing it without consent under the law of confidential information. You would need to get specific advice from a lawyer in private practice if you wanted to investigate whether this area of law might apply here.

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There are two distinct copyrights in an oral history recording: one in the words of the oral history and one in the recorded sounds.

In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the first owners of copyright in a sound recording of a “performance” (such as the recitation of an oral history monologue) are the performer/s (for example, the person reciting the oral history monologue) and the person who owns the master recording medium.

However, performers will not own a share in the copyright in the sound recording if:

• the interview was given in the course of their employment; or

• the recording was commissioned (for example, a museum pays a freelancer or company to record the interview).

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Generally a personal letter is protected as a “literary work” and copyright in it will usually be owned by the person who wrote the letter. If the writer has died, copyright will usually be owned by his or her spouse or children. You may be able to check this if you can get a copy of the writer’s will (in Australia, contact the Probate Division of the Supreme Court in the State where the author died).

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The typesetting and typographical arrangement of an entire book, brochure or magazine will be protected as a “published edition”. This is a narrow and short copyright (only lasting for 25 years), owned by the publisher.

It is not clear, however, whether the layout for a specific publication – or a general template for a layout – may also be protected as an “artistic work”. We are not aware of any Australian cases on this, and there are conflicting British cases. If a layout or template were protected, the first owner of this copyright would usually not be the publisher, but the relevant graphic artist or his or her employer.

Generally, a claim that a particular layout is protected by copyright as an artistic work is likely to have a greater chance of success in relation to a more elaborate layout (such as in a magazine) than in relation to the typical layout of a book. As always, the best way to deal with any possible conflicts over the downstream use of what you create for clients is to make sure your client agreement specifically addresses who will own rights, and what each party’s entitlements will be in relation to a layout or template.

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