Copyright Act 1997, Quotation Exception
Copyright Act, 1997 (Chap. 82:80), s. 10 (Quotation)
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 1 October 1997.
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 10(1) permits, without the copyright owner's authorization, the reproduction of a short part of a published work in the form of a quotation, provided the reproduction is compatible with fair dealing and does not exceed the extent justified by the purpose. Section 10(2) conditions this on the quotation being accompanied by an indication of its source and the name of the author, if the author's name appears in the work quoted.
The provision carries no headline-length or short-extract cap distinct from the fair-dealing test. No reported Trinidadian decision applies it to a systematic news aggregator rather than an individual quoting a published work, and no separate case law on the point has been located. Neighbouring rights under the Act protect performers and their fixations, not a print or online news publisher's own reporting.
When LexLint raises it
aggregates_content
Read the law
Copyright Act, Chap. 82:80 (Act No. 8 of 1997, amended up to Act No. 5 of 2008), full text, WIPO Lex
a later Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act No. 14 of 2020) exists but is not consolidated into the WIPO Lex text