ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces copyright owners’ exclusive rights and how these rights may be infringed. For example, if you wrote a book and it is copied rather than purchased from you, there has been a breach of copyright. This conduct was the historic starting point for the system of copyright protection. In fact, the law grants a series of copy rights. A copyright owner’s rights have vastly expanded and include the right to display the work, perform it in public, translate it and adapt it, among many others. In the same vein, infringing conduct is no longer confined to direct copying but also includes appropriating some elements of the work and encouraging others to copy the work and so on. This interlocking system of rights and infringements is the subject of this chapter. We examine how copyright is infringed (primary and secondary infringement), the array of purpose-specific fair dealing defences and remedies. Checklist
Students should anticipate questions about the following:
the copyright owner’s exclusive rights;
copyright infringement – classes of prohibited acts;
the legal test for copying;
primary infringement;
secondary infringement;
copyright infringement in the digital age;
fair dealing and other defences to infringement.
