Copyright Act, 1993, current-events reporting exception and idea/expression exclusion
Copyright Act, 1993 (Act 5 of 1993, as amended by Act 13 of 2015), s. 6(8) and s. 53(1)(b)
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 3 September 1993.
A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 5 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.
Section 6(8) provides that copyright protection does not extend to an idea, concept, process, principle, procedure, system, or discovery or things of a similar nature, so a bare fact or news item, as such, is never a protected work under Jamaican law whichever outlet reports it first.
Section 53(1)(b) separately lets a person deal fairly with a protected work, other than a photograph, for the purpose of reporting current events without infringing copyright, so long as the dealing is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement of the work and its author.
What it reaches
Instrument type
statute
Categories
Snippet reproduction
When LexLint raises it
aggregates_content