Federal Decree-Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, protection exclusions and limitations
Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021, Arts. 3, 22, 24
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 2 January 2022.
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- News, news reports, and current events that are merely media news are not protected by copyright and may be reproduced without a licence, unless the compilation or arrangement of that material is itself an innovation.
- No text-and-data-mining exception exists, so training on copyrighted UAE-sourced text or copying a database rests only on the Art. 22 personal-copy or quotation limitations, which do not reach software, software applications or databases.
- Quoting short paragraphs or excerpts of a published work is permitted only within reasonable limits for criticism, discussion or information, with the source and author's name credited.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 3 excludes ideas, procedures, mathematical concepts, official documents, news, news reports and current events that are merely media news, and works in the public domain from copyright protection, though a compilation of such material is protected where the selection or arrangement is itself an innovation.
Article 22 lets a person, after a work is published, make a single personal or non-commercial copy of it, quote short paragraphs or excerpts within reasonable limits for criticism, discussion or information with source and author credited, and make a single copy for legal proceedings or non-profit archival and research purposes. That personal-copy allowance expressly carves software, software applications and databases out of its ordinary scope.
No provision in the Decree-Law creates a text-and-data-mining exception or a machine-readable reservation mechanism of any kind.
Article 24 separately lets a newspaper, circular or broadcasting organisation copy excerpts of a work already lawfully made available to the public, published articles on subjects of current public concern (unless the author stated a publication ban), and speeches delivered at public parliamentary, judicial or public sessions when copied in the context of transmitting breaking news, provided the source and the author's name are credited. The Decree-Law creates no sui generis database right distinct from ordinary compilation copyright.
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Read the law
official consolidated Decree-Law text, UAE Legislation portal