Copyright
Typographical Arrangements of
Published Editions
John Lambert
Sep 2002
S. 8 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 defines a "published edition" in as "a published edition of the whole or any part of one or more literary, dramatic or musical works."
Origin
In Newspaper Licensing Agency Ltd. v Marks and Spencer Plc [2001] UKHL 38, Lord Hoffmann traced the history of this copyright. He attributed it to two developments in the publishing industry, one artistic and the other technological. The artistic development was the great improvement in typographical design associated with the arts and crafts movement between 1880 and 1920. A new font could be registered as a design but the typographic layout of a book could not be protected even though it may have required considerable skill and effort. The technical development was photo-lithography which enabled printing plates to be made by photographic means. Publishers were concerned that the skill and labour which had gone into the typographical design of fine editions of classical works could be appropriated by other publishers who used photo-lithography to make facsimile copies. The Publishers' Association made representations to the Departmental Committee on International Copyright, asking it to recommend that a copyright in typography should be created by amendment to the Bern Convention. The Committee was sympathetic but noting came of the representations until after the second world war when it was incorporated into s.15 of the Copyright Act 1956.
Policy
The legislative intention was to protect high quality editions of
classic works such as Jane Austen novels or Beethoven symphonies but the
House of Lords had no doubt that it extends to newspapers. In
the case of a modern newspaper, Lord Hoffmann said at paragraph 23 of
his speech in Newspaper Licensing:
"the skill and labour devoted to typographical arrangement is principally expressed in the overall design. It is not the choice of a particular typeface, the precise number or width of the columns, the breadth of margins and the relationship of headlines and strap lines to the other text, the number of articles on a page and the distribution of photographs and advertisements but the combination of all of these into pages which give the newspaper as a whole its distinctive appearance. In some cases that appearance will depend upon the relationship between the pages; for example, having headlines rather than small advertisements on the front page. Usually, however, it will depend upon the appearance of any given page. But I find it difficult to think of the skill and labour which has gone into the typographical arrangement of a newspaper being expressed in anything less than a full page. The particular fonts, columns, margins and so forth are only, so to speak, the typographical vocabulary in which the arrangement is expressed."
Subsistence
One of the issues in that case was whether copyright in a typographical arrangement subsists in the arrangement of each and every item in a newspaper or other publication or in the publication as a whole. The House of Lords determined that it subsisted in the latter.
