United KingdomCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, secondary infringement and the meaning of infringing copy
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, c. 48, ss. 22, 23 and 27
In force since .
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not import into the United Kingdom, otherwise than for your private and domestic use, an article that you know or have reason to believe is an infringing copy of a copyright work, unless the copyright owner has licensed it.
- Do not, without the copyright owner's licence, possess in the course of a business, sell or let for hire, offer or expose for sale or hire, exhibit in public or distribute in the course of a business, or distribute otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect the owner prejudicially, an article that you know or have reason to believe is an infringing copy of the work.
- An article is an infringing copy if its making infringed the copyright in the work, or if it has been or is proposed to be imported into the United Kingdom and making it here would have infringed the copyright or breached an exclusive licence agreement; the importing limb does not reach an article put into circulation in the EEA by or with the copyright owner's consent.
- A copy that section 29A(3) treats as an infringing copy, the provision for copies made for text and data analysis for non-commercial research, is an infringing copy for the purposes of these sections.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Getty Images (US) Inc & Ors v Stability AI Limited [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), judgment of (Joanna Smith J) (recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 107(1) makes it an offence, without the copyright owner's licence, to make for sale or hire, to import otherwise than for private and domestic use, to possess in the course of a business with a view to committing any act infringing the copyright, or to deal in the course of a business in, or distribute to a prejudicial extent, an article that the person knows or has reason to believe is an infringing copy. Making for sale or hire, importing, distributing in the course of a business, and distributing otherwise than in the course of a business to a prejudicial extent are punishable on conviction on indictment by a fine or imprisonment for up to ten years, or both (s. 107(4)(b)).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The copyright owner, by civil action under section 96; local weights and measures authorities enforce the section 107 offences in their area (section 107A(1)), and in Northern Ireland the Department of Economic Development does.
Settledness
- As of
- Case link
- https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2025/2863
- Case citation
- Getty Images (US) Inc & Ors v Stability AI Limited [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), judgment of (Joanna Smith J)
- Open questions
- Would an AI model whose weights do store or reproduce a copyright work be an 'infringing copy' under section 27, when Getty Images v Stability AI decided only that weights which store no Copyright Work and never have are not?
What record it asks for
Logging duty
Sections 22 and 23 make importing, possessing in the course of a business, selling or distributing an article that the person knows or has reason to believe is an infringing copy an infringement of copyright, and section 27 defines infringing copy. They turn on the person's knowledge or reason to believe and impose no duty to make, keep or produce a log or record. Section 22 describes the act as importing into the United Kingdom, an element of the infringing act, and no separate territorial clause is stated.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 22 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 makes it an infringement of copyright to import into the United Kingdom, without the copyright owner's licence and otherwise than for private and domestic use, an article that the importer knows or has reason to believe is an infringing copy of the work.
Section 23 makes it an infringement, without the copyright owner's licence and with the same knowledge or reason to believe, to possess an infringing copy in the course of a business, to sell or let it for hire or offer or expose it for sale or hire, to exhibit it in public or distribute it in the course of a business, or to distribute it otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect the owner prejudicially.
Section 27 defines an infringing copy as an article whose making constituted an infringement of the copyright in the work. It also treats as an infringing copy an article that has been or is proposed to be imported into the United Kingdom and whose making in the United Kingdom would have infringed the copyright or breached an exclusive licence agreement relating to the work.
That importing limb does not apply to an article that has been or is proposed to be imported after being put into circulation in the EEA by or with the consent of the copyright owner, or to one that may lawfully be imported by virtue of assimilated law. Section 27(6) also treats as an infringing copy a copy that falls to be treated as one under section 29A(3), the provision for copies made for text and data analysis for non-commercial research.
An infringement of copyright is actionable by the copyright owner. In an action for infringement, damages, injunctions and accounts are available as for the infringement of any other property right. Section 107 makes importing or distributing an infringing copy a criminal offence where the person knows or has reason to believe that the article is one. Sections 22, 23 and 27 came into force on as part of Part I of the Act.
How courts have read itPremium data
Our analysis of this law draws on 1 court ruling.
What each ruling held, what it means for an app, and whether it still stands are premium data, in the Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web, trains models or reuses other publishers' content.
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