Copyright Act 1956

7 Special exceptions as respects libraries and archives

(1) The copyright in an article contained in a periodical publication is not infringed by the making or supplying of a copy of the article, if the copy is made or supplied by or on behalf of the librarian of a library of a class prescribed by regulations made under this subsection by the Board of Trade, and the conditions prescribed by those regulations are complied with.

(2) In making any regulations for the purposes of the preceding subsection the Board of Trade shall make such provision as the Board may consider appropriate for securing—

(a) that the libraries to which the regulations apply are not established or conducted for profit;

(b) that the copies in question are supplied only to persons satisfying the librarian, or a person acting on his behalf, that they require them for purposes of research or private study and will not use them for any other purpose;

(c) that no person is furnished under the regulations with two or more copies of the same article;

(d) that no copy extends to more than one article contained in any one publication; and

(e) that persons to whom copies are supplied under the regulations are required to pay for them a sum not less than the cost (including a contribution to the general expenses of the library) attributable to their production,

and may impose such other requirements (if any) as may appear to the Board to be expedient.

(3) The copyright in a published literary, dramatic or musical work, other than an article contained in a periodical publication, is not infringed by the making or supplying of a copy of part of the work, if the copy is made or supplied by or on behalf of the librarian of a library of a class prescribed by regulations made under this subsection by the Board of Trade, and the conditions prescribed by those regulations are complied with:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply if, at the time when the copy is made, the librarian knows the name and address of a person entitled to authorise the making of the copy, or could by reasonable inquiry ascertain the name and address of such a person.

(4) The provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall apply for the purposes of the last preceding subsection:

Provided that paragraph (d) of the said subsection (2) shall not apply for those purposes, but any regulations made under the last preceding subsection shall include such provision as the Board of Trade may consider appropriate for securing that no copy to which the regulations apply extends to more than a reasonable proportion of the work in question.

(5) The copyright in a published literary, dramatic or musical work is not infringed by the making or supplying of a copy of the work, or of part of it, by or on behalf of the librarian of a library of a class prescribed by regulations made under this subsection by the Board of Trade, if—

(a) the copy is supplied to the librarian of any library of a class so prescribed;

(b) at the time when the copy is made, the librarian by or on whose behalf it is supplied does not know the name and address of any person entitled to authorise the making of the copy, and could not by reasonable inquiry ascertain the name and address of such a person; and

(c) any other conditions prescribed by the regulations are complied with:

Provided that the condition specified in paragraph (b) of this subsection shall not apply in the case of an article contained in a periodical publication.

(6) Where, at a time more than fifty years from the end of the calendar year in which the author of a literary, dramatic or musical work died, and more than one hundred years after the time, or the end of the period, at or during which the work was made,—

(a) copyright subsists in the work, but

(b) the work has not been published, and

(c) the manuscript or a copy of the work is kept in a library, museum or other institution where (subject to any provisions regulating the institution in question) it is open to public inspection,

the copyright in the work is not infringed by a person who reproduces the work for purposes of research or private study, or with a view to publication.

(7) Where a published literary, dramatic or musical work (in this subsection referred to as “the new work ”) incorporates the whole or part of a work (in this subsection referred to as “the old work ”) in the case of which the circumstances specified in the last preceding subsection existed immediately before the new work was published, and—

(a) before the new work was published, such notice of the intended publication as may be prescribed by regulations made under this subsection by the Board of Trade had been given, and

(b) immediately before the new work was published, the identity of the owner of the copyright in the old work was not known to the publisher of the new work,

then for the purposes of this Act—

(i) that publication of the new work, and

(ii) any subsequent publication of the new work, either in the same or in an altered form,

shall, in so far as it constitutes a publication of the old work, not be treated as an infringement of the copyright in the old work or as an unauthorised publication of the old work:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply to a subsequent publication incorporating a part of the old work which was not included in the new work as originally published, unless (apart from this subsection) the circumstances specified in the last preceding subsection, and in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection, existed immediately before that subsequent publication.

(8) In so far as the publication of a work, or of part of a work, is, by virtue of the last preceding subsection, not to be treated as an infringement of the copyright in the work, a person who subsequently broadcasts the work, or that part thereof, as the case may be, or causes it to be transmitted to subscribers to a diffusion service, or performs it in public, or makes a record of it, does not thereby infringe the copyright in the work.

(9) In relation to an article or other work which is accompanied by one or more artistic works provided for explaining or illustrating it (in this subsection referred to as “illustrations ”), the preceding provisions of this section shall apply as if—

(a) wherever they provide that the copyright in the article or work is not infringed, the reference to that copyright included a reference to any copyright in any of the illustrations;

(b) in subsections (1) and (2), references to a copy of the article included references to a copy of the article together with a copy of the illustrations or any of them ;

(c) in subsections (3) to (5), references to a copy of the work included references to a copy of the work together with a copy of the illustrations or any of them, and references to a copy of part of the work included references to a copy of that part of the work together with a copy of any of the illustrations which were provided for explaining or illustrating that part; and

(d) in subsections (6) and (7), references to the doing of any act in relation to the work included references to the doing of that act in relation to the work together with any of the illustrations.

(10) In this section “article” includes an item of any description.