Copyright Law in New Zealand
Get an overview of Copyright Law in New Zealand—including copyright protection and ownership, what it covers and the duration of copyright.
Copyright protection
Original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, sound recordings, films, communication works and the typographical arrangement of published editions are protected under the Copyright Act 1994.
Copyright protection attaches automatically, there is no need to register. Copyright gives the creator the exclusive right to do certain acts (there are exceptions that allow others to do certain activities in relation to protected works).
Duration of copyright protection
Under the Copyright Act 1994 the term of copyright protection is:
- Artistic
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year the author died
- Musical
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year the author died
- Literary
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year the author died
- Dramatic
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year the author died
- Computer generated works
- 50 years from creation
- Communication
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was first communicated to the public
- Sound recordings and films
- 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was made or 50 years after the work was first made available to the public via an authorised act
- Typographical arrangements of published editions
- 25 years from the end of the calendar year the work was published
- Crown copyright
- 100 years, but there is no copyright protection for New Zealand Bills, Acts, Regulations, Parliamentary Debates, Court and Tribunal judgments, reports of Select Committees, Commissions of Inquiry, or Government Inquiries
- Works of unknown authorship
- 50 years from the end of the year in which the work first became publicly available. For unpublished works it is 50 years from 1995
There is no copyright for New Zealand Bills, Acts, Regulations, Parliamentary Debates, Court and Tribunal judgments, reports of Select Committees, Commissions of Inquiry, or Government Inquiries.
Copyright ownership
The creator of the work generally owns copyright in the first instance. However, copyright ownership can depend on the type of work and whether the work was created in the course of employment or if it was commissioned.
Copyright is an intellectual property right and can be sold/bought/ given away and licenced for use.
There may be multiple types of copyright in a single work. For example in a published book, the text and the illustrations will be separately protected by copyright and can have different owners.
Refer to the Intellectual Property Policy that covers ownership of Intellectual Property (including copyright) created by staff and students at Victoria University of Wellington.