Updates to the Copyright Act

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

Making changes for the FTAs gives us a chance to make other targeted updates to modernise the Copyright Act. These changes will:

• support not-for-profit gallery, library, archive and museum (GLAM) organisations to preserve and provide access to collections, including by allowing use of orphan works, making digital copies for preservation and access, and applying research and private study copying rules across all GLAM organisations, with safeguards for copyright owners
• introduce a new fair dealing exception for parody and satire, applying across a wide range of works while maintaining authors’ moral rights
• provide courts with a framework to order internet service providers to block access to overseas websites primarily engaged in copyright infringement, with appropriate safeguards and flexibility
• remove an outdated peer-to-peer file-sharing enforcement regime that is no longer used, reducing compliance costs for internet service providers
• enable copyright licensing organisations to take collective action on behalf of copyright owners to prevent infringement
• clarify that the first distribution right is only exhausted where the copyright owner has consented to the overseas sale of copies, supporting control over parallel imports of infringing copies
• change the default rule for commissioned works so that creators are the first copyright owners unless agreed otherwise
• extend resale royalty rights for visual artists by 20 years to align with the longer copyright term.

On 3 June 2026 the Government announced it was moving to progress these changes:

Creative and cultural sector gets further copyright support(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz

Links to the Cabinet paper and minutes are set out below:

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.