Copyright Act 2018, Quoting from Work exception

The Copyright Act 2018 (Act No. 8 of 2018) is Kiribati's general copyright statute, assented to by the Beretitenti on 6 November 2018 and administered by the Minister for Commerce, Industry and Co-operatives. It repeals the earlier Copyright Ordinance (Chapter 16).

Its own arrangement of sections includes one titled 'Act binds the Republic', immediately before the section on the Act's application, and lists 'Quoting from work' as a named exception to copyright infringement, at section 16, alongside other named exceptions for research or private study, temporary copying, educational use, translation, legal purposes, copying by a cultural institution, and copying to report current events to the public, running from sections 14 to 21.

Section 16 provides that a person does not infringe copyright in a work by quoting from it if the work has already been lawfully made available to the public, the amount quoted is justifiable given the purposes of the quotation and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the owner of the copyright, the person acknowledges the work and the author's name where it appears in the work, and the number of copies made does not exceed what is required for fulfilling the educational purpose.

An intentional infringement of a protected right for a profit-making purpose carries, on conviction, a maximum fine of $50,000 or imprisonment of 7 years, or both, for an individual, and a maximum fine of $100,000 for any other person, under section 44. The Act's own text states that it commences on a date appointed by the Minister by notice; no commencement notice has been located.