• Copyright arises automatically: a work is in copyright as soon as it is created, and no registration or formality is required though an assertion of one of the moral rights is necessary (see 1.1.5, 8.1.5).

• Copyright protects original works (see 1.1.6) of the mind or ‘authorial works’ (original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and films) and ‘entrepren - eurial works’ (sound recordings, broadcasts and typographical arrangements of published editions) (see 1.1.3–4). It does not protect ideas or facts (see 2.1.4–5). There are also separate but related rights, such as moral rights, database right and performers’ rights (see 1.1.3, 8.1, 8.2, 8.5).

• More than one copyright may subsist in a single work, and frequently do so in an archival file (see for instance 2.1.2, 7.9.1). A primary question is, what work or works am I dealing with? If there is written material, might there be more than one work (an introduction by another author, for instance)? Is there a copyright in the typographical arrangement (see 2.6.15)? Identify each artistic work (maps, photographs, drawings). A film is bound to consist of many different works (see 2.4.6).

• The first owner of copyright in an authorial work is usually the author, the creator (see 2.1.17–18, 3.2.1). The first owner of copyright in an entrepreneurial work is usually the person or body that financed it (see 1.1.6, 2.4.4, 2.5.4–5, 2.6.7–9, 2.6.12, 2.6.16, 8.2.8).

• If the author of an authorial work is an employee and creates the work in the course of employment, the first owner of the copyright is the employer, whether an individual, a company or some other organization (see 3.2.12–16).

• A volunteer worker is not an employee and so is the first owner of the copyright in his or her work (see 3.2.21). A record office would be well advised to obtain assignments of copyright (see 3.3.8) from all volunteers before they start work so that the copyright in the results of their efforts (for instance catalogues) belongs to the record office.