The exceptions in focus

Copyright law seems to have lurched from one crisis to another over recent years. Debates have raged over how new types of subject matter can be accommodated within copyright law, whether the term of protection for copyright ought to be extended, how to respond to the unauthorised distribution of works over the Internet and whether developing countries ought to be forced to adopt Western copyright standards. More recently, controversy has also come to surround the copyright ‘exceptions’ or ‘defences’ or ‘permitted acts’ or ‘users’ rights' that all modern copyright systems provide so as to privilege certain acts that would otherwise amount to an infringement of copyright. This controversy looks set to continue, with copyright exceptions receiving an unprecedented level of attention from officials, academics and legal practitioners.

In the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe the most immediate reason why so much attention has been given to the exceptions is because the European Union (EU) has taken steps towards harmonising this aspect of copyright law as part of the Information Society Directive. This has forced the United Kingdom and other European countries to amend their copyright legislation. However, most countries have sought to minimise the impact of the Information Society Directive, with the result that significant differences remain between the laws of member states as regards the exceptions.