section_path: Copyright/United Kingdom
section_name: United Kingdom
paragraph_text: United Kingdom
  
  Medical images created in the United Kingdom will normally be protected by copyright due to "the high level of skill, labour and judgement required to produce a good quality X-ray, particularly to show contrast between bones and various soft tissues". The Society of Radiographers believe this copyright is owned by employer (unless the radiographer is self-employed—though even then their contract might require them to transfer ownership to the hospital). This copyright owner can grant certain permissions to whoever they wish, without giving up their ownership of the copyright. So the hospital and its employees will be given permission to use such radiographic images for the various purposes that they require for medical care. Physicians employed at the hospital will, in their contracts, be given the right to publish patient information in journal papers or books they write (providing they are made anonymous). Patients may also be granted permission to "do what they like with" their own images.