Intellectual Property Act, quotation and reporting of current events

Section 12(3) permits, without the copyright owner's authorization, the reproduction of a short part of a published work in the form of a quotation, provided the reproduction is compatible with fair practice, does not exceed the extent justified by its purpose, and is accompanied by an indication of the source and the author's name.

Section 12(6)(a) permits the reproduction, in a newspaper or periodical or by broadcast or other communication to the public, of an article on current economic, political or religious topics published in another newspaper or periodical, unless the copyright owner has expressly reserved that right on the copies or in connection with the broadcast.

Section 12(6)(b) permits, for the purpose of reporting current events, the reproduction and broadcasting or other communication to the public of short excerpts of a work seen or heard in the course of those events, to the extent justified by that purpose. Section 8(c) separately excludes "news of the day" from copyright protection altogether, so the underlying facts of a news report carry no protection independent of these exceptions.

None of these provisions carries a headline-length or short-extract cap distinct from the fair-practice and purpose-justified tests they state, and no reported Sri Lankan decision applies any of them to a systematic news aggregator rather than an individual quoting or excerpting a published work. The Speaker's certificate on the Act is dated 12th November, 2003. Under Article 80(1) of the Constitution, a Bill passed by Parliament becomes law when the certificate of the Speaker is endorsed on it.