2.1 Two Key Features of Copyright Laws That Affect Information Retrieval. The details of copyright law vary by country, however, many countries share a common interest through two agreements to adhere to an international copyright treaty, the Berne Convention (which includes 164 member states) and the Buenos Aires Convention (which is an agreement between the countries of North and South America). Treaties, established to protect the original work of an author/creator against copying - whether literary, dramatic, design, musical or artistic. “Fair Use” and “Fair Use” Many countries have adopted a policy of fair use as part of their copyright laws, “Fair Use” in UK law, “Fair Use” in Canada and in the American “fair use doctrine” to name a few. The purpose of these policies is to provide an exception to copyright infringement laws when information has been copied for non-commercial research or study purposes, or for the reporting of current events. A document published by the UK Intellectual Property Office: 'Exceptions to Copyright Law - Research' states: 'The law already permitted limited copying of certain types of copyright material, such as books, to for purposes of non-commercial research or genuine private study. The law has now changed so that all types of copyrighted works are covered. The document explains that the quantity copied is limited by the legal application of "fair use" and that copying the entire work would not constitute "fair use." In this case, a paid license or subscription would be required. However, according to Section 108 of the Copyright Act, in the United States it is possible to obtain an entire work from your library, however, certain conditions apply. The TEACH T Act...... middle of paper... ...the report also explains that illegal downloading of movies and TV shows has almost halved "with 65 million movies and 55 million "TV shows downloaded illegally in 2012, compared to 125 million and 135 million respectively in 2008." (Write a concluding sentence) PlagiarismPlagiarism Electronic documents have been very difficult to detect in the past, but new technologies have made detection possible electronic plagiarism of materials such as Internet content, online databases and e-books. Educational institutions are now able to check student-submitted content using software such as DupliChecker and Turnitin, which checks work against current and archived web pages and student work databases previously submitted, including journals, assignments, and essays. Students can also actively participate by checking their work using similar publicly available software..