Abstract:
Copyright exceptions which allow information users the right to use copyrighted materials without necessarily obtaining permission from or payment to the rights holder, promote advances in the arts and sciences. Lack or poor knowhow or knowledge of copyright laws results in improper use of copyrighted materials. However, the extent to which academic library users in Zambia know about the exceptions and limitations, as well as their understanding of permissible use of information in the Zambian copyright laws by students are not known. The law on these exceptions has changed in a number of small but important ways, to make the copyright system better suited to the digital age. These changes affect how you can use content like music, books, films and photographs. Majority uses of copyright materials continue to require permission from copyright owners, so one needs to be careful when considering whether you can rely on an exception, and if in doubt you should seek legal advice. As copyright infringement is against the law. The general objective of this research was to investigate the awareness of the importance of copyright exceptions in the Zambian copyright laws by students. This research was qualitative. Qualitative research for this purpose was defined as a process of naturalistic inquiry that seeks an in-depth understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting. It employed the use of a case study design to investigate the awareness of the importance of copyright exceptions in the Zambian copyright laws by students. The sample size consisted of a total of 100 participants. In this research it was found that the importance and use of the copyright laws in Zambia indicated that the copyright laws are important simply because they protect ideas that have been expressed as well as recorded. The findings include the Awareness of copyright exceptions where majority are aware of the copyright exceptions are known and only a few are not aware of it. The other findings shows that the majority of students are not trained and oriented on how to use the copyrighted materials. More findings were conducted on the Awareness of the Zambian law that allows the use of someone’s work without permission provided they don’t violate the owner’s rights or applies provision of exceptions and majority are not aware. The findings on the challenges faced are that majority of the students don’t face any challenges in the use of copyrighted materials. The conclusion of why students shy away from using the copyrighted materials are that students shy away due to the fear of violating the owner’s rights.
