Broadcast
Copyright Protection

A broadcast for the purposes of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK, is an electronic transmission of visual images, sounds or other information which is:

1. transmitted for simultaneous reception by members of the public and capable of lawfully being received by them or
2. is transmitted at a time determined solely by the person making the transmission for presentation to members of the public, which is not an excluded Internet transmission.

Internet transmissions are excluded from the definition of a broadcast unless the transmission:

1. takes place concurrently with some other form of broadcast;
2. it is a concurrent transmission of a live event;
3. contains recorded moving images or sounds that forms part of a programme service offered by a person that determines when the transmissions are made.

Broadcasts may be wireless or by cable: it is the transmission itself that is protected by copyright rather than the contents of the transmission.

To qualify for protection, the broadcast must be made for reception by the public, lawfully (meaning a licence to broadcast is required to be held by the broadcaster) and encrypted broadcasts are also excluded from protection unless decoding equipment has been lawfully made available to the public.