Copyright Act, 2003, fair dealing for criticism, review and reporting current events

Section 6(9)(a) excludes an idea, concept, method of operation, process, principle, procedure, system, discovery or mere data from copyright protection even where expressed in a work, so a bare fact or item of data is never itself a protected work under Antiguan law.

Section 15(2) makes a compilation of data or other material, described in the Act as a database, eligible for protection only as a literary work, and only where the selection or arrangement of its contents is the author's own intellectual creation; that protection does not reach the underlying data itself, and the Act creates no separate sui generis database right of the kind the European Union's Database Directive provides.

Section 52 lets a person deal fairly with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work for the purposes of research or private study without infringing copyright, and section 53 separately lets a person, once a work has been lawfully disclosed, fairly deal with it for the purposes of criticism or review of that or another work, or (other than a photograph) for the purpose of reporting current events, without infringing copyright, so long as it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement; no acknowledgement is required where current events are reported by sound recording, film, broadcast or cable programme.

Section 54 directs a court assessing fair dealing to weigh the nature of the work, the extent and substantiality of the part used relative to the whole, the purpose and character of the use, and the effect of the use on the work's potential market or commercial value.