[FC-discuss] UK Fair Use?

[Ringo Kamens]

So should I completely remove the fair use section? I think that even
though it isn't backed by legal ground in the UK, it is important to
mention that DRM takes away user rights. Should I just remove fair use
and say owner's rights or something like that?
Comrade Ringo Kamens

On 5/13/07, Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
> Timothy Cowlishaw wrote:
> > This is all from memory, so might not be entirely accurate - Rob
> > Myers is probably the best person to advise you on these sort of things!
>
> MJ Ray raises the important point that the UK has three different legal
> systems; one for England & Wales, one for Scotland, and one for Norther
> Ireland. All three are common law systems, and for copyright they have
> had to incorporate the Berne Convention and various European Union
> directives which makes the copyright law quite similar. But we do have
> separate Creative Commons licenses for England & Wales and for Scotland
> for example. For an (inaccurate) American comparison the three legal
> systems are like state law, with the EU as Federal law.
>
> As others have mentioned, the UK has Fair Dealing rather than Fair Use.
> Fair Dealing is much, much weaker than Fair Use from a Free Culture
> point of view. There aren't that many rights under Fair Dealing for DRM
> to restrict.
>
> Fair Use and Fair Dealing are both examples of exceptions to copyright.
> Exceptions to copyright are allowed by the Berne Convention:
>
> http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html#P140_25350
>
> Fair Use is a generic exception, where use has to pass a four-point test
> to be allowed:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_under_United_States_law
>
> Fair Dealing is a series of specific exceptions, where use has to be
> explicitly mentioned in law to be allowed:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing
>
> Fair Dealing in the UK has been reduced over the years to the point
> where it now just covers copying for academic research and time
> shifting. Oh, and review and criticism. As others have mentioned, we
> have no right of personal copying or format shifting:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Fair_dealing_and_other_exceptions
>
> We are hopefully getting some more Fair Use-like exceptions for parody
> and transformative use, as well as format shifting, as a result of the
> Gowers Review of "Intellectual Property":
>
> http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/gowers_review_intellectual_property/gowersreview_index.cfm
>
> So that's the state of play for copyright exceptions in the UK.
>
> To cross over to the BBC letter discussion, I agree with Tim about
> mentioning Fair Use. Although copyright exceptions are an international
> principle, and many of us involved in Free Culture in the UK look on
> Fair Use as the gold standard of copyright exceptions, it won't have
> very much meaning for the BBC.
>
> - Rob.
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