UK law divides material up into some broad categories:
Literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works
This category covers works that are generally written or drawn onto paper etc. Literary works include material in books, journals, etc; musical works relate to the written musical notation and words if there are any; dramatic relates to the text of plays etc; and artistic works relate to illustrations and drawn material. Copyright protects all these works in one way or another whether or not the writing is ‘good’ or the drawing is ‘artistic’.
Films, sound recordings, broadcasts and cable transmissions
A film will have many elements that are covered by copyright individually eg the words the actors say, and as a work in itself the film will also have copyright. Over and above any copyright in the words or music, a sound recording has copyright, as do broadcasts of that recording. Broadcasts and cable transmissions also include material disseminated via the Internet, and most of the material you find on the Internet (websites, blogs etc) are also in copyright.
Typographical arrangements
There is an automatic copyright lasting 25 years in the specific style and arrangement of text in a printed book (say). So if a publisher takes an out of copyright book and then produces a new edition in a different typeface say, then that new version is protected for 25 years from the year of publication.
Performances
If your research deals with drama and the performing arts, you might find that you have to deal with copyright as it applies to performances, which are also protected.
Designs & Trademarks
These are specialist areas of copyright, but you might have to be aware of the relevant aspect of the law if you yourself are designing an object as part of your research. Although (like written works) designs and trademarks don’t have to be registered to have protection, there are such registers in place and getting them registered gives the creators added protection in law.
Databases
The contents of a database may be protected under copyright law as Literary Works, and the database itself may have protection under separate legislation for the way in which the material is arranged. This is a complicated area of intellectual property law, and one which will not be dealt with in this course. For specialist advice in this area, please refer to the contacts given at:
http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/support/copyright/CopyrightContacts.shtml