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Hugenholtz, P. Bernt --- "Limits, Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright under the TRIPS Agreement" [2010] ELECD 451; in Correa, M. Carlos (ed), "Research Handbook on the Protection of Intellectual Property under WTO Rules" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Protection of Intellectual Property under WTO Rules

Editor(s): Correa, M. Carlos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209047

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Limits, Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright under the TRIPS Agreement

Author(s): Hugenholtz, P. Bernt

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

10 Limits, limitations and exceptions to
copyright under the TRIPS Agreement
P. Bernt Hugenholtz*


1. Introduction
Copyright is not absolute, but a right that is confined by a subtle struc-
ture of limits and limitations. In the ideal copyright system, these limits
and limitations are essential balancing tools, precisely calibrated to allow
users of copyright works sufficient freedoms to interact with these works
without unduly undermining copyright's incentive function to act as the
`engine of free expression'. While the general limits of copyright define the
subject matter, scope of protection and duration of the exclusive rights,
the statutory limitations (or `limitations and exceptions' as they are fre-
quently called) accommodate more specifically a variety of cultural, social,
informational, economic and political needs and purposes.
In national law, limitations and exception come in many shapes and
sizes, varying from the precisely circumscribed exceptions commonly
found in countries of the droit d'auteur tradition to the more flexible `fair
dealing' or `fair use' style provisions of the Anglo-American copyright
tradition. At the international level, not much in terms of copyright
limitations is harmonized. While incorporating the Berne Convention's
minimum standards (art. 1-21 BC), the Agreement on Trade-related
Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), deals with copyright limita-
tions in a single, rather loosely worded norm: the `three-step test' (art. 13
TRIPS), which will be discussed at some length below. The general objec-
tives and principles of the Agreement set out in articles 7 and 8 TRIPS
provide ...