Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm afraid not. Unlike the US's fair use law, which provides a set of four criteria by which a particular usage can be judged, the UK's fair dealing law provides three and only three circumstances under which a copyrighted work can be reproduced. These are:
- Academic research or study,
- Criticism or review,
- The reporting of current events
"Reading books out loud to children" doesn't fit into any of these categories.
|
Unfortunately copyright laws throughout most of the developed world have been heavily influenced by lobbying on behalf of special interests, the most influential of course being the rights owners, who should not be confused with the actual authors. This has lead to laws which in many respects are neither in the public interest nor in the interests of authors. What perverse reasoning in the UK lead to librarians not being able to read aloud to children without permission from rights holders I can only speculate. In my view this result is not only against the public interest but is morally wrong. I wonder if an author who has sold their soul (and assigned their copyright) to a large publisher could be in breach of copyright if they read their own book to children in a library without first getting permission? It would not surprise me.
This type of requirement not only tends to diminish the respect of the public for the particular law, but also the law in general. It is past time for a very fundamental and, if even possible, independant review of intellectual property laws.