Copyright Protection Law, press-article reproduction exception
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 August 2002.
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 19 permits reproducing an article in a newspaper or periodical, or broadcasting or otherwise communicating to the public an article published in a newspaper or periodical on current political, economic, social, cultural, or religious topics (or a broadcast work of the same character), subject to clearly indicating the source and the author's name where known.
The permission does not apply where the author has explicitly reserved the right of reproduction or communication to the public, so a publisher can withdraw the exception for its own content by express reservation. Article 4(2) separately excludes daily news and other news of a mere informatory nature from copyright protection altogether, so a bare factual news item carries no copyright interest to begin with, independent of article 19's conditional permission for full articles.
Neighbouring rights under article 1's definitions protect performers, sound-recording producers, and broadcasting organisations, not a print or online news publisher as such, so no press-publisher neighbouring right of the kind the European Union's Digital Single Market Directive article 15 creates exists in Qatar. A reproduction that does not meet article 19's conditions, or that a publisher has reserved, is an ordinary infringement under article 48.
When LexLint raises it
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