Law / Tanzania

Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, free use for press reproduction and current events

Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 1999 (Cap. 218), s. 12(4)-(5) (free use: reproduction of press articles and reporting of current events)

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 31 December 1999.

A snippet reproduction rule binding 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.

Where an article on current economic, political or religious topics has been published in a newspaper or periodical, or broadcast or distributed by cable, the reproduction of that article in the press, or its communication to the public, is permitted free of the author's consent unless the original publication carried an express prohibition on such use, and provided the source is clearly indicated when the article is used in that manner.

Separately, for the purpose of reporting a current event by photography, cinematography or communication to the public, reproduction of a work that can be seen or heard in the course of that event is permitted to the extent justified by the informatory purpose. Neither exception is capped at a headline-length or short-extract threshold, and no reported Tanzanian decision has tested whether either reaches a systematic news aggregator's reproduction of headlines and snippets.

What it reaches

Instrument type

statute

Categories

Snippet reproduction

When LexLint raises it

  • aggregates_content

Read the law

Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act text as republished by TanzLII

archived copyRead from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived August 4, 2025. Publisher's page: https://tanzlii.org/akn/tz/act/1999/7/eng@2002-07-31

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