Having demonstrated in the last chapter that exceptions covering activities such as criticism, review and news reporting are necessary in order to prevent copyright from conflicting unduly with freedom of expression, we turn in this chapter to consider the provisions of UK law that relate to such activities. The principal focus of this chapter is on two fair dealing exceptions, namely, fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review and fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events. Consideration is also given, however, to a number of supplementary provisions, including, for example, the provision that allows for the reproduction of spoken words and provisions relating to the reporting of official proceedings. To some extent our analysis can only be provisional, given the dearth of case law interpreting the relevant exceptions post the implementation of the Information Society Directive. But given that the government decided to adopt a ‘bolt-on’ transposition of the Directive, sticking as closely to the original wording of the 1988 Act as was reasonably possible, it seems safe to assume that the courts will continue to apply much the same principles when interpreting the newly modified provisions. We demonstrate that the relevant provisions are, in various respects, limited in scope, subject to important restrictions and uncertain in their application. Moreover, in addition to identifying various problems with the exceptions themselves, we also discuss various other obstacles that may prevent users from relying on the exceptions.