Copyright Act 1994

68 Use of recording of spoken words in certain cases

• (1) Where a recording of spoken words is made, in writing or otherwise, for the purpose of—

  • (a) reporting current events; or

  • (b) communicating to the public the whole or part of the work,—

  it is not an infringement of copyright in the words as a literary work to use the recording or material taken from it (or to copy the recording, or any such material, and use the copy) for that purpose, if the conditions in subsection (2) are complied with.

  (2) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are that—

  • (a) the recording is a direct record of the spoken words and is not taken from a previous recording or from a communication work; and

  • (b) the making of the recording was not prohibited by the speaker and, where copyright already existed in the work, did not infringe copyright; and

  • (c) the use made of the recording or material taken from it is not of a kind prohibited by or on behalf of the speaker or copyright owner before the recording was made; and

  • (d) the use is by or with the authority of a person who is lawfully in possession of the recording.

  Compare: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s 58 (UK)

  Section 68(1)(b): amended, on 31 October 2008, by section 39(1) of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 27).

  Section 68(2)(a): amended, on 31 October 2008, by section 39(2) of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 27).