Federal Decree-Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, news exclusion and press-review exception
Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021, Arts. 3(3), 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 snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
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(3) of the Federal Decree-Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights excludes news, news reports and current events that are merely media news from copyright protection outright; the exclusion lapses only where the compilation or arrangement of that material is itself an innovation.
Article 24(1)(a) separately lets a newspaper, circular or broadcasting organisation, without the author's consent and with the source and author's name credited, copy excerpts of a work already lawfully made available to the public. Article 24(1)(b) lets the same outlets publish articles on subjects of current public concern, unless the author stated a publication ban.
Article 24(1)(c) lets them reproduce speeches delivered at public parliamentary, judicial or public sessions when copied in the context of transmitting breaking news. The exception carries no headline-length or short-extract cap distinct from the requirement that the copying stay within the limits justified by its purpose.
The Decree-Law creates no separate press-publisher neighbouring right, no compelled platform-to-publisher bargaining regime, and no hot-news or misappropriation doctrine distinct from ordinary copyright and unfair-competition law, and it predates the concept of a machine-readable text-and-data-mining reservation, so no opt-out mechanism of that kind exists either.
What it reaches
Instrument type
statute
Categories
Snippet reproduction
When LexLint raises it
aggregates_content
Read the law
official consolidated Decree-Law text, UAE Legislation portal