Fair Use And Fair Dealing Exceptions To Copyright Law

In our last blog post, we discussed the requirements for copyright infringement to come about under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, there is a range of fair use exceptions and limitations to copyright infringement in the CDPA ...

In general terms, this is called either Fair Usage or Fair Dealing. The CDPA calls it fair dealing and lists a number of exceptions with respect to specific uses:

- research or private study
- reporting current events
- criticism or review (as in ‘theatre review’ rather than ‘re-watching’)
- quotation
- parody
- caricature
- pastiche

For all of these exceptions, the dealing must be seen as fair. UK courts and judges have explained that they will look to the objective standards of a 'good and honest person' in order to establish if the act was fair.

According to leading judges, "this will be a matter of degree. You must consider first the number and extent of the quotations and extracts. Then you must consider the use made of them. If they are used to convey the same information as the author, for a rival purpose, that may be unfair. Next, you must consider the proportions. To take long extracts and attach short comments may be unfair. But, short extracts and long comments may be fair ... it must be a matter of impression. As with fair comment in the law of libel, so with fair dealing in the law of copyright."

Furthermore, the law will also ask, "is the alleged fair dealing in fact commercially competing with the proprietor's exploitation of the copyrighted work? If it is, the fair dealing defence will fail"

The vast majority of copyright infringements arise from either reporting of current events or in use for quotation purposes. Individuals use clips from news channels without realising that they could be overstepping these fair dealings exceptions.

"Display Rights works with leading broadcasters from around the world!"

We are well-positioned to help you with any licensing needs for executive interviews or thought leadership videos and are happy to offer advice on what you can and cannot use in your own videos to ensure you do not infringe copyright and stay within the rules of fair usage and fair dealing.

If you feel inspired to find out more about anything we've said here, do call us on +44 1908 041290 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.