Exception to Copyright Infringement for Study and Research: Comparative Study of Thailand and Australia

Abstract

In any countries, the legislations on copyright will provide exception of copyright infringement for a purpose of study and research. The reason for this exception is to create reconciliation between two conflicting interests: exclusive rights of authors, and public interest. On one hand, authors in producing original materials deserve legal protection given their efforts, time and expenditures spent on their materials. Thus rights of authors restrict use that can be made of their copyright materials. On the other hands, public, to a large extent, depends on these materials for essential development and re-production of subsequent or new works. As a result, restriction on use of these materials would contradict with public interest.

One restriction in copyright legislation is an exception to copyright infringement for study and research. In this paper, Thailand's legislation and Australia's legislation on this will be examined on a comparative basis.

Keywords: copyright exception, study and research, public interest