Fair dealing has been interpreted by the courts on a number
of occasions by looking at the
economic impact on the copyright owner of the use; where the economic impact is not significant,
the use may count as fair dealing.
Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
work other than a sound recording or film
for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose does not infringe any copyright in the
work, provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, usually bibliographical
details. The fair dealing research and private study exemption does not apply at all to sound
recordings or films.
Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
work for the purposes of private study does
not infringe any copyright in the work.
Fair dealing in the context of a literary work usually
means making one copy for research for a non-
commercial purpose or private study. Multiple copies are not considered fair dealing. Placing
another’s copyright images or journal articles on the Internet is widely considered to be multiple
copying and is not considered fair dealing. Accordingly, this form of fair dealing may apply to a
student who downloads and uses material in their own work, but it is unlikely that multiple copying
of that work for class or posting on an intranet would be covered by this exemption.
Copying for a commercial purpose, whether by photocopying,
scanning, or downloading and
copying from the Internet, is excluded from the statutory exception of fair dealing or library
privilege. It is important to remember that in copying from e-journals the user is bound by the
e-
journal licence terms and conditions, which may or may not permit downloading and copying for
commercial purposes. Users should check with the journals terms of use to ascertain the situation
for each journal.
It is not fair dealing to observe, study or test the functioning
of a computer program in order to
determine the ideas and principles which underlie any element of the program, unless this is done
while loading, displaying, running, transmitting or storing the program which the user is entitled to
do.
