Fair use (Polish: dozwolony użytek) is a concept in Polish copyright law that allows the use of copyrighted works without the author's economic rights or rights holder's permission and, in principle, without remuneration. This limitation restricts the exclusive rights of the copyright holder to use the work and to derive benefits from its use. The restriction of these exclusive rights is justified either by private interests (private fair use) or public interests (public fair use).
The term "fair use" is specific to the Polish Copyright Act of 1994. It does not appear in the legislation or legal scholarship of other countries and was not present in Poland's previous copyright laws of 1926 and 1952. Fair use serves as the Polish equivalent of limitations and exceptions to copyright.
Certain rules apply to all forms of fair use. The work must have been previously made publicly available. Additionally, moral rights must be respected – whenever possible, the author and source should be credited. Furthermore, the user's activities must not be in competition with those of the copyright holder.
Essence The copyright holder has the exclusive right to use, dispose of, and receive remuneration for the use of a work. In certain cases, this monopoly may be limited by statutory provisions. Some legal experts argue that this is not limited to the copyright and related rights act but also includes, among others, the civil code and treaties.
One such institution is fair use, regulated in Chapter III, Section 3 of the Copyright Act. Its purpose is to allow users free (to a certain extent) access to creative works, enabling the use of works without the need for explicit permission from the copyright holder and, as a rule, without payment of remuneration.
The justification for fair use is both practical (personal interests of users in the case of private fair use) and purposive (public interest in the case of public fair use). Fair use (exceptions and limitations to copyright in general) is considered a "classic institution of copyright law".
Fair use among copyright exceptions and limitations The term "fair use" does not originate from legal writing. It was introduced as the title of a group of provisions in the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act of 1994. Previously, in the acts of 1926 and 1952, such a term did not exist. Some have expressed the view that "fair use" is a functional rather than a strictly legal concept. Thus, it encompasses provisions that are connected not by their nature but by their intended purpose.
Since fair use is such a specific concept, discussions about the relationship between "fair use" and "copyright limitations" are not pursued. The distinction between terms such as "fair use" and "statutory licenses" also remains unclear. Scholars who propose a clear classification of broadly understood copyright limitations agree that it cannot be directly applied to existing regulations. While standardizing terminology would not affect the application of the provisions, it would be convenient.
History Provisions on fair use were included in the copyright acts of 1926 and 1952. In the former, they were outlined in Articles from 13 to 17, within Chapter II, titled Limitations on Copyright. These provisions allowed, among other things, private use, reprinting, and the broadcasting of works on the radio. In the 1952 act, fair use provisions were found in Articles from 18 to 22, within Chapter III, titled Content of Copyright. The amendments made to this act were flawed – internally inconsistent and not adapted to technological developments. It was during the enforcement of the 1952 act that mass copying onto magnetic tapes emerged, leading to proposals for the introduction of private copying levys.
The fair use provisions of the 1994 Copyright Act have been amended multiple times. In 2004 and 2015, changes were introduced to align Polish law with European Union regulations (Directive 2001/29/EC). For private fair use, a requirement was added that only "single copies" of works could be used. Additionally, several new provisions regarding public fair use were introduced.
Principles of fair use
General concept Fair use applies only to certain ways of using specific groups of works. These uses are difficult to systematize or generalize. It is widely accepted that there are no universal criteria for fair use, and formulating them appears impossible. However, some legal scholars disagree. Although the provisions vary in terms of permitted use, they share a common regulatory approach. Based on this, eight legal principles have been proposed to aid in interpreting the provisions:
Principle of a closed list of fair use forms Principle of using a published work Principle of universality – fair use must be accessible to all (e.g., private fair use) or to everyone within a defined group (e.g., library fair use) Principle of loyalty – fair use must not interfere with the normal exploitation of a work (the Berne three-step test) Principle of respecting moral rights Principle of use without remuneration Principles of either limiting freedom or limiting the scope of copyright enforcement, depending on the adopted concept Principle of the user's subjective right – a proposal from one scholar
Since no general concept of fair use exists, some propose aligning Polish regulations with the American fair use doctrine. However, adopting a foreign legal concept would slow down court proceedings. A potential solution could be drawing from Canada's experience, where fair dealing has been adapted to resemble the American fair use.
Closed set of exceptional cases The Polish Copyright Act, like the laws of other droit d'auteur systems and European Union law, employs a case-specific approach to regulating copyright exceptions and limitations. Experts conclude that, since the principle is the exclusivity of the author's rights, fair use is an exception to this rule. Therefore, the legal maxim exceptiones non sunt extendae applies, meaning that exceptions should be interpreted strictly, without drawing analogies between different forms of fair use. Some legal scholars, however, allow for analogy, provided that the legitimate interests of creators and the function of a given provision are taken into account. They argue that the prohibition of analogy "lacks normative grounds and is not justified on axiological grounds".
Use of published works Fair use does not infringe upon moral rights, including the author's right to decide on the first public release of a work (the right of dissemination). In other words, fair use applies only to published works. This rule has traditionally been upheld in droit d'auteur systems. During the enforcement of the 1926 Polish Copyright Act, legal scholars were uncertain whether this rule applied, as it was not explicitly stated in the legislation. The 1994 Act introduced various fair use provisions requiring prior dissemination, publication, or public display of a work. However, amendments in 2004 and 2015 reduced the number of fair use provisions that required prior publication (i.e., the availability of physical copies such as books or CDs).
There is uncertainty regarding the use of works received directly from the author that have not been previously published. It could be argued that such works fall under fair use only for the recipient but not for others. Another question arises as to whether, by privately sharing a work, the author implicitly grants the recipient the right to decide on its first public release. A further issue concerns cases where a user is unaware that a work has not been published with the author's consent – particularly regarding quotation rights and reprinting. A strict interpretation would deem such use illegal, even if the user cannot determine whether the work has been disseminated. However, some argue that such use could be legal if the user is not at fault (i.e., they have no reasonable way of verifying the work's publication status).
Non-interference with normal use The Berne three-step test is included in copyright law acts and regulates the creation and interpretation of provisions related to exceptions and limitations (fair use). In 1994, it was included in Article 35 of the Polish Copyright Act. The wording "fair use must not interfere with" (normal use of a work or harm the legitimate interests of the creator) means that Article 35 limits the scope of fair use provisions. A copyright holder can invoke it if a user infringes on copyright, even if this does not arise directly from the provision regulating that particular form of fair use.
Although this regulation has been part of Polish copyright law for many years, it still raises doubts and presents interpretive challenges due to the lack of legal definitions and the vagueness of the terms used. Legal scholars' views on the subject are not uniform, leading to different conclusions. Courts also do not provide a clear answer.
Respect for moral rights Limitations and exceptions to copyright only concern economic rights, not moral rights. Legal experts agree on this, although it is not explicitly stated in the provisions. In the 1926 Act, this could be inferred from the public fair use provision, which required the attribution of the creator and source of the work and prohibited altering the work. It was unclear whether this rule applied to private use as well. In the 1994 Act, the requirement to mention the creator and the source of the work is stipulated in Article 34. The principle of respecting moral rights is so firmly established that it has been argued that explicitly stating the obligation to mention the author and source in the law is "somewhat redundant".
Article 34 applies to all forms of fair use. This assessment is not changed by the difficulty of ensuring the creator and source are mentioned in private use cases.
Attributing the creator means providing their full name or pseudonym. If the work is published anonymously, revealing the creator's identity might infringe upon their moral rights. For collaborative works, such as films, it is unnecessary to list all co-creators. The term "source" can refer to different information. In the case of a citation, it refers to the title of the work, but it may also refer to the location of the work (e.g., the name and issue number of a journal, or a website address). Citing the source may involve providing the name of the editor of a collective work or the publisher's name. These examples are not exhaustive, and it is not necessary to provide all of them simultaneously.
In practice, attributing the author and source can vary depending on the available information. In some cases, full knowledge of authorship or source may not be accessible, while in others, it may not be possible to convey such information when using the work (e.g., citing during a concert). The way the author and source are provided also depends on customary practices.
No payment for fair use As a general rule, users are not required to pay the copyright holder for using works under fair use provisions. This principle is established in Article 34 of the Copyright Act. Exceptions are designed to balance the protection of both user and copyright holder interests. One way of balancing these interests is the implementation of private copying levys. These levys serve as compensation to copyright holders for mass private fair use. Some provisions of public fair use allow copyright holders to receive remuneration. These include the right of reproduction, permission for using works in creating textbooks, excerpts, and anthologies, as well as encyclopedias and atlases, and library fair use provisions.