The Copyright Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament passed in

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that, along with its various amendments, governs copyright in New Zealand. It is administered by Intellectual Property Policy Unit of the

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Scope of copyright

Copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

law grants the owner of the copyright exclusive rights to certain restricted acts, which include the following. * copying the work * publishing, issuing or selling copies to the public * performing, playing or showing the work in public * broadcasting the work * making any work derived or adapted from the copyright work.

Copyright works

Copyright automatically applies (no registration required) to original works in the following categories. * Literary works (novels, poems, song lyrics, computer programmes, compilations of data) * Dramatic works (scripts for films or plays) * Artistic works (paintings, plans, maps, photographs, sculptures, models, buildings) * Musical works (scores and arrangements) * Sound recordings (of musical, literary or dramatic works) * Films * Broadcasts (radio, TV, cable) * Typographical arrangement of published editions (this exists independent of copyright in the published work, if any). Copyright does not apply to certain government works, such as Acts of Parliament, Regulations, Parliamentary debates, Court judgements and reports of Select Committees, Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, etc.

Copyright term

The copyright term is largely consistent with

other countries Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, although it has not increased from 50 to 70 years as in Europe and the United States, and varies with the category of the work. * Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works; 50 years from the death of the author * Artistic works industrially applied; 16 years from when the work is applied * Artistic craftsmanship industrially applied; 25 years from when the work is applied * Sound recordings and films; 50 years from when it is available to the public * Broadcasts and cable; 50 years from broadcast * Typographical arrangements; 25 years from first publishing. * Computer-generated works; 50 years after being made. * Crown copyright: 100 years

Exclusions and fair dealing

The Act allows for certain permitted acts to be exempted from copyright restrictions. * Fair dealing; for purpose of criticism, review, news reporting, research, private study. * certain educational purposes *

time shifting In broadcasting, time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to after the live broadcasting. Typically, this refers to TV programming but it can also refer to radio shows via podcasts. In recent year ...

of TV programmes for viewing at a later time *

format shifting Format shifting is the conversion of media files into different file format or data compression (video coding format and audio coding format). This may be required to play the media on different devices, for example when converting or ripping audio ...

of music * back up of computer programmes * making copies in Braille.

Moral rights

The copyright act also provides moral rights for the author. These attach to the author, and are not transferred by contract as economic rights can be. Moral rights give the author the right; * to be identified as the author (right of attribution) * to object to derogatory treatment of the work (right of integrity) * to not have work falsely attributed to them.

New technologies amendments

In 2001, the MED initiated a major review of copyright law, in light of new technologies, such as media in digital form and communications via the internet. Law changes were enacted in 2008, most notably the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act. These changes were influenced by media corporations and aligned organisations (

RIANZ Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...

, APRA, Artists Alliance, NZSA, AIPA, NZIPP, etc.) but opposed by New Zealand artists, technology specialists,

ISPs An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

, businesses, media commentators, librarians and members of the public. The nature of the law changes attracted attention internationally. The New Zealand Prime Minister,

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...

, stated that the stronger copyright laws, including the controversial section 92a, were required for New Zealand to be able to negotiate a

free trade agreement A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occur ...

with America. In February 2010, a Bill repealing s92a was introduced to parliament, replacing it with a three notice regime for copyright infringement via file sharing. The bill also provides for the Copyright Tribunal to hear complaints and award penalties of up to $15,000. The notice regime took effect on 1 September 2011.

References

External links

Copyright Council of New ZealandCopyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ)Creative ArtistsCreative Commons NZ

copyright.co.nz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copyright Law Of New Zealand New Zealand copyright law Statutes of New Zealand 1994 in New Zealand law