Fair dealing
Copyright Protection

Fair dealings with copyright works provide defences to copyright infringement under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK (as amended) and are referred to ’permitted acts’ in the legislation. The fair dealing defences are limited to specific purposes. The touchstone for the defence is that the dealing must be fair to the copyright owner, and as such the defence does not provide an excuse to copy in toto.

Fair dealings for research for the purposes of research and private study applies to literary, artistic dramatic, musical works and typographical arrangements and is restricted to non-commercial purposes.

A defence for dealings for the purposes of criticism and review may be available provided the title and the author are acknowledged and applies to all copyright works.

The reporting defence may be available for dealings with copyright works for the purpose of reporting current events. Acknowledgement of the author is required unless the copyright work is a sound recording, film, broadcast or cable programme.

Copyright works may be included incidentally in artistic works, sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes, but not deliberately in the case of musical works.

Limited defences apply for the visually impaired, educational institutions, library and archive exemptions, decompilation of computer programs, backing up computer programs and software, time shifting (broadcasts and radio programmes), and where a finding of infringement is not in the public interest.