AS SOON as you take a photograph or write something, copyright exists in that material - and lasts until well after your death.

Each of us owns the copyright in material we produce in our own time. Under most (UK) contracts of employment, what we produce in work time belongs to our employers. (If employers are being very strict, that could include anything personal too.)

There are no age limits on copyright. Everything anyone produces for educational purposes initially belongs to the creator, not to the school or college. (If you're a student, then read your contract very carefully before signing up for a course; you could find a university or college owns every word of every essay you submit.)

In the UK, copyright exists automatically, but if there's a dispute, you need to be able to prove when something was created. So, many professional writers and creators send copies of material to themselves in the post, in envelopes which they keep but never open, so the postmark can prove its existence on a particular day.

Copyright exists in the 'expression' of an idea, not in the idea itself, or in facts. In the UK, creators who submit material to newspapers or magazines cannot demand identification or that their work is not distorted, because of what are called 'moral rights'. This is different in Europe where, for example, everyone involved in a television news report has to be identified.

You never know when something may be valuable. Circumstances and trends change how much someone may want something, so rights are important. In the UK and USA, it's possible for corporations to hold copyright, so big business increasingly sees 'intellectual property' (IP) as a valuable asset.

Of course, you can give away all your rights in material you have created, but if big business wants the rights, then they're potentially valuable. So, it makes sense to hold on to copyright.

What you can do instead is 'license' the use of your material - and you can stipulate where and how this is done, according to parts of the world or different media, such as the internet, television, radio, newspapers or magazines.

When you send someone material you have created, tell them if you are allowing them a licence to reproduce that material, where, when, for how long and how much it will cost them.

It is also worth remembering that, in the UK, Cashing a cheque does not mean you accept someone else's terms and conditions.

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