Your Advocate
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chamber of a renowned law firm, namely, 'Tanjib-ul Alam and Associates ',which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, admiralty, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, telecom law, energy law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies.
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Photo: ijustdidit.org |
Query
I attended a conference last week where various flipcharts were used by different professionals. I took pictures of a few flipcharts and I wish to write some Articles on this issue. I wish to use the pictures of those professionals in my article. I want to know if any issue would arise under copyright law at all. And if I actually use those pictures, what type of legal action may bring against me and for that what would be my defence? Is it necessary to take permission of author/ professionals under any circumstances?
Anonymous
Response
From the perusal of your query, you seem to have two concerns, namely (a) using pictures of flipcharts that you have taken and (b) using the pictures of the professionals in your article. From your query it is not clear whether you want to use the "picture" of the charts or the "picture of those professionals" in your article. Which of these two actions you intend to take is not clear to me. In the second sentence of your query above you have stated that you have taken "pictures of a few flipcharts" then again in the next sentence you have stated that you "wish to use the pictures of those professionals" in your article. Your query does not reveal that you have taken picture of "those professionals" nor does it reveal that you intend to use the pictures of the flipcharts in your article.
Assuming that you want to use "picture" of the charts, in my opinion, the picture itself is your work as such you are the owner of the copyright of the picture itself. However, your picture contains copyright work of someone else i.e. the professionals who prepared the flipcharts, then by taking a picture you have already copied the work. Since your picture contains charts, which is a copyright work of someone else, you are not allowed to publish it without the permission of the copyright owner. If you do so, you will be infringing the copyright of the authors of the flipcharts.
Assuming that you want to use the "picture of those professionals" and that while taking their picture you took their permission, in my opinion, you will not be violating any copyright law as you will be publishing your own copyright work. However, it should be kept in mind that regardless of the copyright law, a person has the right to prevent you from publishing his picture if you have taken it without his permission even if such publication is not an infringement of copyright law.
When you "use" any data from the flipcharts that you have taken picture of, you will be copying the literary work of the author. Such copying of literary work may not constitute infringement of copyright if you can establish that you have used the information for educational purpose with due acknowledgement and without any business intention. In other words, there are certain defence available under the Copyright Act which will give you protection if are able to use them. These defence include, using the copyright work for educational purpose, not for business purposes, reverse engineering etc.
Good luck with your writing.
For detailed query contact: info@tanjibalam.com.
