Abstract

• Copyright law is an intricate area of law which regulates intangible property rights in literary and artistic creations. This intricacy only becomes more apparent when the rights of the public to enjoy freedom of expression and free access collides with the claims of copyright ownership. A copyright holder generally has the authority to prevent others from making reproductions, selling or distributing, performing in public, or broadcasting their copyrighted work. But such right is limited to control the monopoly of the copyright holders on the reproductions of their works. Fair use is the mechanism that has been developed to limit the rights of the copyright holders. In cases where the advantages of public use surpass the private benefits of the copyright holder, fair use allows the public to use copyrighted works without the authorization of the right holder. This paper uses the qualitative approach to understand fair use doctrine and its role in balancing the authors’ rights and the public interest within the context of Copyright Law, 2019. It re-examines two historical copyright infringement cases through the fair use perspective to evaluate how similar disputes might be assessed under the current legal framework. The analysis reveals that the Copyright Law, 2019 allows fair uses of the copyrighted materials for personal, educational, informational and archival purposes while safeguarding the interests of the authors and copyright holders. Nevertheless, despite the provisions asserting compliance with fair use, the law needs a clear definition of fair use and the extent to which such use is permissible across various contexts. By integrating international standards such as the four-factor test and the three-step test, the current copyright framework can be strengthened and enhanced the co-existence of author protection and public access.