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| ''see also: [[Information]]''<br> | | ''see also: [[Information]]''<br> |
| ===On the distinction between copyright and [[confidence]]===
| | {{copyright and confidence}} |
| The key thing is to distinguish between [[breach of copyright]] and [[breach of confidence]].
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| ====Breach of copyright====
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| Copyright subsists in the particular articulation of the information, rather than in the information per se. To breach of copyright is to deny a copyright owner the commercial benefit of its creation: e.g., by accessing for free something the copyright owner wants you to pay for. In other words:
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| *I ''can’t'' copy ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone'' without J.K. Rowling’s permission;
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| *But I ''can'' tell you the plot.
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| ====Breach of confidence====
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| Breach of confidence is less about the ''form'' of the information and more about the ''content'': If I have signed a [[confidentiality agreement]] I can copy confidential information to my heart’s content, as long as I only use it within the bounds of the licence I have been granted. In other words as long as I don’t disclose the ''substantive content'' of that information to anyone else. Here the forbidden action is “telling you the plot”: I could do that either by:
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| *Giving you a full copy of the material
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| *Telling you the plot without copying anything at all.
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| Breach of confidence is where the real compliance issues lie because it implies –
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| *The Information that is non-public: therefore there are significant market abuse, insider dealing issues;
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| *It is the substantive content and not the particular form of the information that is valuable.
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| ===Examples=== | | ===Examples=== |
| ====Investor presentation materials==== | | ====Investor presentation materials==== |