International copyright treaties and national copyright legislation include provisions for using portions of copyrighted content under certain conditions without seeking permission.

Many countries have copyright exceptions and limitations that allow for the use of copyrighted content under certain circumstances – e.g. for teaching purposes in a classroom. This is often called ‘fair practice’, ‘fair dealing’ or ‘fair use’ depending on the country. However, in most countries the concept of fair practice is somewhat vague and indefinite.

In South Africa, although not specified in copyright legislation, fair dealing allows the reproduction of 10% of (or one chapter from) a book, or one article of a journal, to be copied by a person for the purposes of research or private study.