5. Copyright 4: exceptions and limitations

This chapter discusses exceptions and limitations to the rights of the copyright owner. Copyright law establishes many such exceptions and limitations, listed in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) as the ‘permitted acts’. These acts can be carried out in relation to the copyright work without the owner’s permission or, in some cases, can be performed subject to terms and conditions specified by the statute rather than by the copyright owner. The chapter discusses the influence of the international framework and EU Directives on exceptions and limitations. It analyses the ‘permitted acts’ and discusses the freedoms afforded through them to users of protected works in the UK, and also briefly considers how far they may be set aside by contractual provision.