Copyright law of New Zealand
The copyright law of New Zealand is covered by the Copyright Act 1994 and subsequent amendments. It is administered by Business Law Policy Unit of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
New Zealand is party to several international copyright agreements, including the TRIPS Agreement 1994, the Berne Convention 1928 and the Universal Copyright Convention 1952.
The Copyright Act 1994 provides owners of original work with a monopoly to control the use and dissemination of their work. The owner of the copyright in a work has the exclusive right to exploit the economic rights. A person infringes copyright in a work when he or she, other than pursuant to a copyright licence, does any of the following “restricted acts”, either in relation to the work as a whole or any “substantial part” of it:
Anyone who wants to use someone else’s work requires the permission of the right owner. The copyright owner can assign, transfer, and license the economic rights in the work.
Copyright automatically applies (no registration required) to original works in the following categories:
Copyright does not apply to certain government works, such as Acts of Parliament, Regulations, Parliamentary debates, Court judgments and reports of Select Committees, Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, etc.
Copyright protection does not last forever. The duration of copyright protection depends on the type of work. The work will eventually enter the public domain. This means that once copyright has expired, everyone can freely use the work. Before such time permission of the right holder is required to use a copyrighted work. New Zealand's copyright term is largely consistent with other countries, and complies with the WIPO standard. The copyright term depends on the type of work in question. Here are some examples:
...
Wikipedia