Fair dealing and moral rights

Definition of fair dealing

"Fair dealing" means the right granted by copyright laws to reproduce limited portions of copyrighted works without infringing the legitimate interest of the authors or copyright owners. This right exists in the UK and other regions whose copyright ordinances are derived from the UK (such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong). In the US, the term "fair use" is adopted.

Fair dealing for non-commercial research or private study

A certain amount of copying is allowed under "fair dealing" for purposes of "non-commercial research or private study". Since the law does not clearly define the amount of original material that can be copied, the Society of Authors issued guidance in 1965:

• one article from any one issue of a journal (even if that one article is the whole issue)
• one chapter or up to 5% (whichever is greater) of a book or similar publication
• up to 10% of a short book of up to 200 pages (Library Association guidelines)
• one poem or short story of up to 10 pages from an anthology, or
• the report of one case in law reports

You may copy for yourself or make a single copy for another person. Fair dealing does not cover multiple copying of extracts or articles, this must be done under the CLA Photocopying Licence, or with the permission of the rights-owner. It does not cover the copying of sheet music.

The Publishers' Association and JISC have drawn up similar guidelines for fair dealing in the copying of electronic publications.

Fair dealing for criticism or review

Fair dealing for "criticism or review" allows copying within generally accepted limits.

The Society of Authors advises that permission need not be sought for short extracts provided that the content is quoted in the context of 'criticism or review' and not just to embellish the text.

A short prose extract is defined as:

• not more than 400 words
• or a total of 800 words in a series of extracts, none exceeding 300 words

A poetry extract is defined as:

• not more than 40 lines from a poem, providing that this does not exceed a quarter of the poem.

When deciding if the extract you wish to use is covered by fair dealing, consider:

• the length and importance of the extract
• the amount quoted in relation to your commentary
• the extent to which your work competes with the work quoted

Works that are out-of-copyright can of course be quoted from beyond these limits, providing you are using an edition that was published more than twenty-five years ago, and providing you acknowledge the source of the extract.

Moral rights

Four categories of moral rights are associated with authorship, and are quite distinct from copyright.

• Paternity: the right to be acknowledged as the author . This has to be asserted, and can be over-ridden by the copyright owner for material created in the course of employment
• Integrity: the right to prevent derogatory treatment of their work. This can be over-ridden by the copyright owner for material created in the course of employment, unless the author was identified in published copies of the work
  NB Neither paternity nor integrity rights exist for certain classes of work including computer programs, computer-generated work, newspaper articles, collective works of reference
• False attribution: the right not to have a work falsely attributed to them. This right expires 20 years after the death of the author
• Disclosure: the right to withhold publication of an image or broadcast