Fair Use
In copyright law, there is a concept of fair use, and there are some other similar terms such as fair dealing, or fair practice. Fair use allows certain actions that can be taken but would not normally be considered to be an infringement of the work. According to fair use rules, you may be allowed to utilize quotations or excerpts, where the content has been made available to the public, (i.e. published), as long as the use is deemed acceptable according to the terms of fair dealing, the quoted content is justified, and no more than is necessary is included, and the source is mentioned in the quoted content, along with the author's name. There are several typical free uses of work, namely, inclusion for the purpose of news reporting, incidental inclusion, and national laws typically allow limited private and educational use.
In terms of fair dealing legislation, fair dealing is used to specify several limited activities that are permitted without violating copyright laws. They are listed as follows:
1. Research and private study
Copying parts of a typographical arrangement of a published edition or a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the objective of research or private study is permitted if the purposes of copying the work is for research or private study and for non-commercial purposes, the source of the material is mentioned, and copies of the material are not made available for a number of people.
2. Instruction or examination
Copying parts of a sound recording, film or broadcast or a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the objective of instruction or examination is permitted if the copying is made by the person giving instruction or the student, the copying is not made via a reprographic process, the source of the material is mentioned, and the instruction is given for a non-commercial purpose.
3. Criticism or review
Quoting parts of a work for the objective of criticism or review is allowed if the material has been available to the public, the source of the material is mentioned, the work quoted must include some assessment or actual discussion (to warrant the criticism or review classification), and the amount of the content quoted does not exceed the necessary amount for the purpose of the review.
4. News reporting
Using content for the objective of reporting current events is allowed if the material is not a photograph, the source of the material is mentioned, the amount of the content quoted does not exceed the necessary amount for the purpose.
5. Incidental inclusion
Incidental inclusion is known as the part of one work that is unintentionally included in another. The incidental inclusion of a work in a sound recording, artistic work, film or broadcast is not an infringement.
6. Accessibility for someone with a visual impairment
It is regarded as fair dealing to make a copy of a work accessible for another with a visual impairment if a suitable accessible version is not already available.
7. Parody or pastiche
Under exceptions of copyright law, you are granted permission to limited use of a copyrighted work to make a parody or pastiche of the work without the need to ask for the author's permission. However, this should be treated with cautions, because there is not much instruction or case law rulings to follow. It is stated in the IPO guidance that the use must be “fair and proportionate”, and this exception does not limit other rights of the author (for example to object to defamatory or derogatory treatment).
