Limitations and exceptions to copyright are provisions, in local copyright law or the Berne Convention, which allow for copyrighted works to be used without a license from the copyright owner.
Limitations and exceptions to copyright relate to a number of important considerations such as market failure, freedom of speech,[1] education and equality of access (such as by the visually impaired). Some view limitations and exceptions as "user rights"—seeing user rights as providing an essential balance to the rights of the copyright owners. There is no consensus among copyright experts as to whether user rights are rights or simply limitations on copyright. The concept of user rights has been recognised by courts, including the Canadian Supreme Court,[2] which classed "fair dealing" as such a user right. These kinds of disagreements in philosophy are quite common in the philosophy of copyright, where debates about jurisprudential reasoning tend to act as proxies for more substantial disagreements about good policy.
- ^ P. Bernt Hugenholtz. Copyright And Freedom Of Expression In Europe (2001) Published in: Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss, Harry First and Diane Leenheer Zimmerman (eds.), Expanding the Boundaries of Intellectual Property, Oxford University Press; Stavroula Karapapa, Defences to Copyright Infringement: Creativity, Innovation and Freedom on the Internet. (2020) Oxford University Press.
- ^ Canada, Supreme Court of (1 January 2001). "Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Search". scc-csc.lexum.com. Retrieved 7 March 2021.