Simulated Client project - What is copyright?

Having looked at a few campaign sites I've noticed that they have all been straight to the point and shown the main message so I thought that I should maybe know the basic of the copyright laws especially copyright laws that effects music. I had a browse around some of the sites when I came across http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/protect/p07_music_copyright it explained to me the process of how to copyright music, how to get permission to use others music etc

What is the copyright law?
"The law gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts, films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control the ways in which their material may be used." (quote is from copyrightservice)

All of the types of work that are stated above can be covered in the copyright law. The rights occur as soon as the piece of work has been created though proof of skill/labour is to be shown that its the orignal piece of work to gain the rights. Basically you cannot claim the rights of an ideas but work that can show the idea can claim the rights.
The rights are normally to the creator/designer/artist etc who made the work, however if the work is created by an employer of a design company then the company owns the rights and not the individual.

Duration of the act?
For the subject that I am working around (music) the rights on work differs, for musical it is 70 years and for sound recording 50 years

It is an offense to perform any of the acts stated below:

- Copy the work.

- Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.

- Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.

- Adapt the work.

However if the user is using the work for study research, educational purposes, news reporting, incidental inclusion, copies and lending by librians, timeshifting, backup for personal use, playing for not profit and for purposes for the royal commission; then they are exempt from the rights.

Currently the law is pressing down on the 'uploaders' however companies who use their download maybe convicted too. When researching I came across a list of archives that has news about piracy so hope this helps everyone.

Sites to help gain an idea on copyright laws:

http://www.music-law.com/democopyright.html

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

http://www.copyrightaware.co.uk/