Copyright Law and Library Exceptions and Limitations

According to the law libraries and other similar institutions which do not seek to obtain an economic or commercial advantage, directly or indirectly, are exempt from the obligation to pay the remuneration. Besides the law allows without the consent of the author or other copyright holders and without payment of the author's remuneration, but with the obligatory indication of the name of the author whose work is being redeemed and the source of the loan, the reproduction, to the extent justified by the aim pursued: a legally published work where the reproduction is done by libraries and archives and does not seek to obtain an economic or commercial advantage, directly or indirectly, but to replace lost, destroyed or rendered inoperable specimens or to make copies available to other libraries or similar archives for the replacement, in their own collections, of lost, destroyed or rendered unusable works, if such copies of the work are not routinely made; articles and other works of small volume or of extracts of limited extent from legally published literary works (with the exception of computer programs) when the reproduction is made by libraries or archives for the needs of individuals who use for private study or research purposes, and does not seek to obtain an economic or commercial advantage, directly or indirectly; articles and other works of small volume or of extracts of a limited extent from legally published literary works (except for computer programs) when the reproduction is made by educational institutions for study or research purposes; and does not seek to obtain an economic or commercial advantage, directly or indirectly. The law admits that electronic transfer of public works for archiving purposes by libraries without obtaining an economic or commercial advantage, directly or indirectly, is permitted without the consent of the author or other copyright holder and without payment of any remuneration.

The law allows for basic library activities including lending, copying and preservation, as well as education and research copying, but does not take account of digital uses, specifically arguing that its definition of reproduction does not include digital copying. The law allows libraries to make a share accessible format copies of works for people with print disabilities. The copyright law is in the process of change. There are no provisions allowing for Armenian libraries to get around technological protection measures that prevent them from using exceptions.

Australian libraries have benefited from recent changes to copyright law, taking into account the opportunities for digital access to collections and the need for improved access for people with print disabilities. ALIA is advocating for further copyright law reforms, with the goal of creating a fair use environment.  The main advocacy body for libraries is the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee. There are Public Lending Right and Educational Lending Right schemes in Australia.

The law does not include any explicit provisions for libraries, but do allow for quotation, at least for analysis, comment, criticism, education or research. There are also provisions for the compulsory licensing by the state of important works which are out of print, or for works by recently deceased authors when their successors have not arranged for publication.

The Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act (1993) regulates the relationships related to the creation and distribution of literary, artistic and scientific works. The law provides protection for "any literary, artistic and scientific work resulting from endeavor and expressed by any mode and in any tangible form shall be the subject matter of copyright".

The exceptions or limitations of copyright related to the activities and services of libraries, educational institutions, museums and archives education and research are the cases of free use provided in Art. 23, Art. 24, Art. 25, Art. 25a, Art. 26, Art. 70, Art. 71, Art. 93g, Art. 97 (7). The free use of works is permissible only in the cases, specified by the law, under the condition that it does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and the legitimate interests of the copyright holder are not impaired.  The provision of Art. 24 (1)(9) allows, without payment or remuneration, the reproduction of already published works by publicly accessible libraries, educational or other learning establishments, museums and archive institutions, with educational purposes or with the purpose of preservation of the works, unless serving for commercial purposes, etc. Art. 24(1)(10) allows free reproduction of works, that have been made available to the public, into Braille script or other analogous format, unless done for profit purposes. Section 8 of Chapter 7 (as of 2015) lists the special rules for the use of orphan works and phonograms, as defined in Directive 2012/28/EU. Public lending rules are not applicable to libraries.

The Copyright Act of Canada governs the rights of creators over their works balanced with the rights of users and sets out the legal framework for copyright protection in the country.

Sections 30.1 to 30.5 of the Copyright Act provide exceptions and limitations for libraries, archives, and museums allowing them to provide copies of materials to users, support the activities of educational institutions described in section 29, aid private research and study, to digitize works for internal use for interlibrary loans, or to make copies to support the maintenance of library collections, under certain conditions.

The framework of copyright law in Colombia is Law 23, 1982. Since 2011, some proposals for updates have been made and since then the librarians have been making comments for the inclusion of exceptions and limitations in these proposals.