Re: Changes to New Zealand Copyright Act

Michael Lean writes:
>
> I understand that the New Zealand Government has made some changes
> to the fair dealing provisions of their Copyright Act; does anyone
> have any information on what it is that they've done?

They haven't done anything yet. I just spoke to Caroline Wallis, clerk of the Commerce Select Committee, which is hearing the bill. A bill is a proposed piece of legislation, and the committee must hear and read submissions on it and make recommendations to the House of Representatives based on those submissions and its judgement.

The committee has finished hearing evidence, and is nearly finished the consideration, and will shortly embark on making amendments to the bill (not to law, just the bill). The proposed amendments, I believe, would have given educational institutes coverage for any amount of copying under the fear dealing provisions. This was widely challenged by publishers :)

For more information on precisely what is proposed, contact the office of the Minister for Justice (+64 4 471 9950). To obtain copies of the bill, talk with:

     Bennetts Government Bookshop,
     Bowen House,
     Cnr Lambton Quay & Bowen St,
     PO Box 5334,
     Wellington

     Phone: +64 4 499 3433
     Fax:   +64 4 499 3375

Warning: they will *charge* you for copies. The archaic system in New Zealand means that legislation, bills and other government documents are charged for. Yes, that's right --- my taxes pay to make the laws that can get me locked up, but not for me to read them.

Nat

Nathan Torkington
<nathan.torkington[_at_]vuw.ac.nz> Received on Thu Nov 17 1994 - 01:04:27 GMT