Updates to the Copyright Act
The Government is preparing to update the Copyright Act 1994.
On this page I tēnei whārangi
Updates to the Copyright Act are needed to meet trade agreement obligations
In 2023 and 2024, New Zealand entered into Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the United Kingdom and the European Union. Under the 2 FTAs, New Zealand has agreed to:
- extend the protection for most copyright and related rights by 20 years to protect most types of works for either 70 years from the creator’s death or 70 years from publication
- extend the protection it gives to digital locks (technological protection measures) to include preventing a person undertaking an act to circumvent those locks other than in limited circumstances.
New Zealand must make updates to the Copyright Act to meet these obligations. For the NZ-EU FTA, updates to the Copyright Act need to be enacted by 1 May 2028. For the NZ-UK FTA, updates need to be enacted by 31 May 2028. It makes sense to progress all the updates to the Copyright Act together as one package by the earlier deadline of 1 May 2028.
On 26 May 2026 the Government announced it was moving to progress these changes:
Keeping Kiwi music in Kiwi hands(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz
Making changes for the FTAs gives us a chance to make other changes
Further information on these targeted updates will be available soon.
Copyright and GenAI
GenAI raises complex copyright questions. Countries are taking different approaches to address these issues. Cabinet has invited the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to report back by 31 March 2027 on a possible copyright framework for GenAI in New Zealand.
Keep up to date
If you would like to receive updates about the review:
Subscribe to our mailing list(external link)
You can also contact the Copyright Act Review Team if you have a question about the review.