Section 5 of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000 is short and consequential.
Section 5 — the exclusions
(a) any idea, procedure, system, method of operation, concept, principle, discovery or mere data — whether expressed, described, explained, illustrated or embodied in a work; and
(b) any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature or any official translation thereof.
Paragraph (a) — the idea-expression distinction
The closing words of paragraph (a) are the operative ones: the exclusion applies whether or not the idea, system or method is expressed, described, explained, illustrated or embodied in a work.
So writing an idea down does not turn it into property. The text of a business plan is protected as a literary work; the plan is not. The drawings of a machine are protected as artistic works; the machine and how it works are not. Anyone may read the description, take the idea, and express it in their own words.
| Excluded | Example | What is protected |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | A story about a village that resists a mining project | The particular novel or screenplay written from it |
| Procedure / method of operation | A method of accounting for smallholder coffee purchases | The manual explaining the method; the software code implementing it |
| System | A ledger layout or filing structure | Original artistic or literary elements of the forms themselves |
| Concept / principle | An engineering or agronomic principle | The paper in which it is published |
| Discovery | A newly identified plant species or mineral occurrence | The report, photographs and maps recording it |
| Mere data | Rainfall figures, share prices, a list of place names | An original selection or arrangement of them — a database as a derivative work under s 4(1)(b)(ii) |
Facts are not created; they are found. Excluding mere data keeps information itself free while allowing the compilation to be protected where the selection or arrangement is original.
The consequence for anyone building a database is practical: protect the structure, interface and selection by copyright, and protect the content by contract and access control. Note that section 8(2)(c) withholds even the private copying exception from a substantial part of a digital database, and that section 29 makes it unlawful to deal in devices designed to circumvent technical protection measures.
A computer program is expressly a literary work under section 4(1)(a)(i). But its function is a method of operation, excluded by section 5(a).
So the code — source and object — is protected against copying, but the behaviour is not. A competitor who writes fresh code to do the same thing infringes nothing. That is why software is also protected by contract, by trade marks on the product name, and by confidentiality.
Paragraph (b) — official texts
No protection extends to any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature or any official translation thereof.
Legislative — Acts of Parliament, Organic Laws, the Constitution, regulations, statutory instruments, provincial and local-level laws.
Administrative — official notices, gazettal notices, government forms, published decisions of statutory bodies acting in an official capacity.
Legal — the judgments and orders of courts.
The reason is constitutional rather than commercial. People are bound by the law and must be able to read, copy and distribute it freely. That is why sites such as PacLII may publish the full text of PNG legislation and judgments, and why this article can quote section 5 in full.
Note the limits. The exclusion covers the official text and any official translation. It does not cover a publisher’s annotations, commentary, headnotes, indexes or editorial arrangement, which are original works of their own — nor an unofficial translation, which is a derivative work under section 4(1)(b)(i).
The other boundaries of copyright
Section 5 is not the only limit. Three others should be read with it:
- Duration. Under section 17, protection ends 50 years after the author’s death — or 50 years from making, availability or publication for collective, audiovisual, anonymous and pseudonymous works, and 25 years for a work of applied art. After that the work is in the public domain.
- Free uses. Sections 8 to 16 permit a range of acts without authorisation — private copies, quotations, teaching, public institutions, news reporting, computer programs, personal imports and public display.
- Folklore is dealt with separately. An expression of folklore is not a work under section 4 — it is protected by Part V, on different terms, with authorisation vested in a competent authority determined by the Minister.
Before assuming you may copy something because it looks unprotected, ask three questions in order:
1. Is what I am taking the expression, or only the idea, system, method or data? Taking the expression infringes; taking the idea does not.
2. Is it an official text? If so, section 5(b) applies — but the publisher’s added material is not covered.
3. If neither exclusion applies, is there a free use in sections 8 to 16, or is it an expression of folklore requiring the competent authority’s consent? If not, authorisation is needed under section 6, and infringement exposes you to damages and, where wilful and for profit, criminal liability.
Sources
- Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000 — ss 4, 5, 6, 8–17, 29, 30
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000 and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.