In the United Kingdom, virtually every work, both digital and analogue, created by the labour, skill and judgement of individuals and institutions is covered by copyright as long as it meets certain conditions.

These pre-requisites are:

* The work must be original
* The work must be in a material form.
* The work falls under one of the categories protected by copyright. These include: literary, dramatic and artistic works, films, sounds recordings, broadcasts, dramatic works and typographic works.

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, but the expression of those ideas in a "physical" format will gain copyright. For example, web pages and digital images will exist at least virtually and therefore constitute more than mere ideas.
  
With the implementation of the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations in the UK, the penalties for infringing the rights of material available in digital form are more severe.

Removal of any technical protection measures associated with the digital content or remove any rights information, now constitutes an infringement of copyright and may be subject to criminal proceedings.