Limitations and Exceptions To Copyright - National Laws

National Laws

Two important examples of limitations and exceptions to copyright are the fair use doctrine found in the United States, and the fair dealing doctrine found in many other common law countries. Other more fundamental boundaries of copyright are caused by thresholds of originality, a threshold below which objects cease to be copyrightable, the idea-expression dichotomy, the public domain and the effect of Crown copyright. Even copyright maximalists might interpret these as defining copyright, rather than being "limitations" or "exceptions" to it. In addition copyright can only protect the artist's expression of his/her work and not the ideas, systems, or factual information conveyed in it. Likewise, the US court systems have determined that stock characters are also uncopyrightable.

While fair use in the United States is popularly understood as the only limitation to an author's exclusive rights, it is only one of several important limitations. Section 106 of the U.S. copyright law, which defines the exclusive rights in copyrighted works, is subject to sections 107 through 122, which limit the copyright holder's exclusive rights.

In the USA, the United Kingdom, and several other countries, it is legal to produce alternate versions (for example, in large print or braille) of a copyrighted work to provide improved access to a work for blind and visually impaired persons without permission from the copyright holder. (See references at Copyright.)

In the USA, in stark contrast to those copyright laws which have developed from English law, edicts of government are not subject to copyright, including edicts of foreign governments.