Copyright Act, news reproduction and press-article exceptions

Section 6(b) excludes news of the day and miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press information from copyright protection. Section 11(1) permits quoting from a work that has lawfully been made available to the public without the copyright owner's authorisation, provided the quotation is compatible with fair practice and does not exceed the extent justified by the purpose.

Section 11(2) requires that the quotation be accompanied by an indication of source and the author's name where the name appears in the source. Section 14(a) permits reproducing, broadcasting, or otherwise communicating to the public an article published in a newspaper or periodical on a current economic, political, or religious topic, or a broadcast work of the same character.

This permission does not apply where the right to authorise reproduction is expressly reserved by the author or other copyright owner. Section 14(b) separately permits reproducing and broadcasting or otherwise communicating to the public short excerpts of a work seen or heard in the course of reporting current events, to the extent justified by that purpose.

Section 31(1) makes willful, commercial-scale infringement of a reproduction right an offence punishable on conviction by imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to SCR50,000, or both, rising to up to ten years or a fine of up to SCR100,000, or both, for a second or subsequent offence within five years. Section 30 separately entitles the rights owner to a court order requiring the infringer to desist and to damages and expenses.

Section 5(1)(b) also protects, as derivative works, collections of data including databases, whether in machine-readable or other form, provided the collection is original by reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents.