Off the Record:Copyright

Copyright legislation protects the right of the author and ensures that their work e.g. novel, play, drawing, map is not reproduced without permission. Different types of work have different restrictions on copying under copyright law. Some copyright, for example, expires so many years after the death of the author, however copyright can also be inherited by a family, or business. Copyright law for archives differs from that which applies to libraries as most archive records are unpublished.

For more information see http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm