X-Factor UK 2011 Auditions

The UK X-Factor is back again. A new season; new talents. Here are two you have to hear them sing.



Emmanuel Kelly, a victim, survivor of chemical warfare from Iraq, doesn't know how old he is but has managed to become a wonderful singer. Here is his performance on The X Factor - Emmanuel's version of John Lennon's Imagine. (You're going to need Kleenex for this one.)








16-year-old Janet Devlin from Northern Ireland with her beautiful voice is a contestant to watch. Listen to her version of Elton John's Your Song. I wish I could make it easier for you but the video has been disabled but you can watch it on YouTube - http://youtu.be/GaDFdtk0A2Y.  Enjoy it.

These are the judges.  Recognize anyone?

Image sources:
- xfactor.itv.com
- YouTube

Perplexing Perpetual Protection (not Peter Pan)

A case of perpetual copyright protection has been puzzling me, and it is not Peter Pan (s. 301 CDPA 1988) for a change, but universities.

The Copyright Act 1775, also referred to as the University Act 1775, was implemented after the House of Lords had established in Donaldson v Beckett ([1774] 4 Burr 2408) that there was no such thing as a perpetual copyright at common law parallel to the Statute of Anne. It bestowed the right on "the Two Universities in England, the Four Universities in Scotland, and the several colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester to hold in Perpetuity their Copy Right in Books given to or bequeathed to the said Universities and Colleges".

So why do I care, surely the CDPA 1988 or even one of its predecessors repealed the Act? Well, yes and no. In para 13(1) Sch 1 CDPA 1988, it says that "[t]he rights conferred on universities and colleges by the Copyright Act 1775 shall continue to subsist until the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the new copyright provisions come into force and shall then expire." Para 13(2) goes on to state that exceptions and limitations, remedies, provisions with respect to licensing and the provisions on the Copyright Tribunal apply to those rights in the same way as in relation to "normal" copyright.

While technically repealed by the CDPA 1988, the Copyright Act/Universities Act 1775 is still in force for practical purposes and continues to be applicable until 31 December 2039. Given that state of affairs, I find it very vexing (am I falling into 18th century parlance here, or do you still say that?) that I cannot seem to find the complete text anywhere. The Legislation Services Team at legislation.gov.uk have informed me that there are no plans to include the Act on their website in the foreseeable future either.

If any of our kind readers happen to have the text of the Act, I would be very grateful if they could post it in the comments section or email it to me. I would also be very interested to hear whether the list of beneficiaries was extended at any point in time (hello, University of London colleges?) and if anyone knows of any practical cases where that right was enforced. Many thanks in advance!

UK Domains and Web Hosting

Network Solutions, one of the largest domain registrars and web hosting services companies in the world, now offers a complete array of services especially for users in the United Kingdom. These include not just .co.uk domain names, but web hosting, e-commerce email hosting, SSL security certificates and custom design and marketing services. It’s everything you need to be successful whether you are targeting visitors from the UK or operating a worldwide enterprise.

While .uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to the United Kingdom, you can’t register .uk domains the way you register a .com or .net. Instead, you need to register one of the approved second-level domains. The most popular of these is .co.uk which is intended for commercial use but available for general registration. Of course, you are free to use the more general .com, .net and .org domains.

By the way, you can also register a .eu domain if you would rather be identified with the European Union. Unlike the unrestricted availability of the .co.uk domain, as a registrant you must be located within the EU to register a .eu domain name.

Once you have a domain name, you’ll want hosting to put that name to use. Most users want web hosting, but it is possible to skip the website and just have email hosting for a very low cost. You pay by the number of mailboxes you want. Then you have a choice of whether to pickup your email using the email program on your computer that downloads the messages, or to keep everything in the cloud and access your messages from anywhere using webmail. Spam and virus protection are included.

Network Solutions UK also offers a business email service to host your domain name. It works like the personal email solution, but includes more storage and the ability to sync email, contacts, calendars and tasks so you can work remotely and the ability to share calendars and collaborate on group projects.

Web hosting comes in a range of sizes to accommodate every user from those just starting out to major enterprises. The most popular packages are shared hosting, where you and a number of other clients share the same server. Of course, your files are kept separate in your own account. It’s the sharing of computing resources that keeps this service low cost.

For most hosting needs, shared hosting is the way to go. You get a lot for your money. Most plans are general hosting packages that include buckets of monthly bandwidth and disk storage. There are also specialized hosting options that include Hosting for WordPress that is designed specifically for bloggers and SharePoint hosting that is specifically designed to work with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) collaboration for small businesses.

You can generally add e-commerce capability to any general hosting package. Network Solutions UK has gone a step further by creating specialized CommerceSpace packages for online stores. You get customizable storefront templates that you can edit online or using web design software such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage. You have the ability to accept PayPal and Google Check payments and can add a merchant account to accept credit cards. The packages are priced by the maximum number of products from 25 to 100,000. A domain name is included with an annual purchase.

A step up from shared hosting is VPS or Virtual Private Server hosting. Intended for more demanding uses, these virtual servers give you root access to install whatever software you want, including different operating systems. You have a guaranteed amount of RAM and ample amounts of storage and bandwidth. VPS has become popular because it offers the flexibility of a dedicated server at a lower cost through virtualization than shared physical computing resources.

One additional type of hosting you should consider is mobile website hosting. More and more traffic and commerce is moving to smartphones. How does your website work on the small screen of a mobile phone? Not so well? You may benefit from a mobile-specific website with a .mobi extension. The advantage of a mobile site is that it is optimized for mobile screens and loads much faster than a full website. The user interface features the familiar icon appearance.

Are you interested in hosting to support your UK business, or are you conducting business internationally and want to focus on UK customers? If so, learn more about UK Domains and Web Hosting from Network Solutions.

Note: Map of the United Kingdom courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Clearance: the IPO speaks

The most recent issue of the UK's Intellectual Property Office e-mag Insight carries a short feature entitled "How do I locate a copyright owner if I want to use the work?" Titles like this are always likely to be a hostage to fortune. The article reads:

"If you want to use someone else's material which is still protected by copyright, and if there is no exception to copyright which covers the situation, you need to seek the permission of the right holder.

You may therefore need to consider who owns or controls the rights in the material. This person could be:

* the creator of the material or his heirs, or
* the creator's employer, or
* anyone else to whom the rights in the material have been sold, or otherwise transferred or licensed, or
* a collective licensing society which has been asked to collect fees on behalf of the rights holder. [Pretty good. In this miserable economic climate the person in control may also be a liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy, as this note mentions below. Another possibility is the Treasury Solicitor's Bona Vacantia division, the website of which providentially contains information about the abandoned copyright it sells]

You should remember that as copyright is an automatic right, there are no registers that can be checked to locate the creator or right holder in a work. There are though organisations representing copyright owners who may be able to assist you in tracking them down.

The copyright protection for many works will continue for 70 years after the [end of the year in which the] creator or owner of the rights in a work has died. The rights will have transferred to someone else, perhaps through testamentary deposition (a will) or by inheritance. If there was no will, or if the creator of the work has not specified where the rights in the material should go, then the normal rules of inheritance will apply. (These rules are not specific to copyright, and advice should be sought from a legal adviser.)

When a company goes out of business or ceases trading, any copyright it may own continues for the customary copyright duration. The rights will be part of the assets of the company, and may be sold or otherwise dealt with by the company or its liquidator, etc.

If you wish to trace a right holder, there is no official body that can help you directly, but you could try the following:

* Contact the appropriate collecting society (see the above link)
* Contact the creator's publisher, agent, representative etc.
* Carry out internet searches on various search engines.
* Establish any family connection.
* Use the WATCH file, (Writers, Artists and Their Copyright Holders) - a joint project of the University of Reading, in the UK, and the University of Austin, Texas, USA. They hold a list of some right holder contacts for some authors and artists.

Please note that if you are having difficulty locating a right holder, you should keep good records of your efforts. (This will help to show that you have been trying to act in good faith.) If you are unsuccessful in tracing the right holder, and still wish to proceed with your project, you should do so with caution. You may wish to set aside an appropriate fee for the use of the work in a special bank account [I've personally felt that, for small-scale unauthorised acts, this should come to roughly what a decent meal for two at a good restaurant would cost you], and, when you use the work, apply a statement indicating that you have tried to trace the right holder, but have failed to do so, and then invite any legitimate right holder to contact you [one can imagine some scenarios in which this is impractical, impossible or just plain unaesthetic]. You should bear in mind that should the right owner appear, they may consider suing you for infringement of their rights, and in such a case you would want to show the right holder, and perhaps the courts, that you have acted in good faith and have made reasonable efforts to try to track down the right holder".

The 1709 Blog invites readers to offer the IPO their own tips and suggestions for the first revision of the advice on this web page.