Copyright Act 1994

8: Meaning of copyright owner

You could also call this:

"Who is considered the owner of a copyright?"

You own copyright with others when you create something together. In this case, the law refers to all of you as the copyright owner. When the law talks about the copyright owner, it means all the people who own the copyright. When different people own different parts of the copyright, the law considers the owner to be the person who owns the part that is relevant to the situation. This means the law looks at who owns the specific part of the copyright that is important in that case. The law does this to make sure the right person is considered the copyright owner. If someone imports, sells, or deals with an object without permission, the law says the copyright owner is the person who owns the copyright in the country where the object was imported, sold, or dealt with, unless Part 7 says otherwise.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM345903.

This page was last updated on 3 December 2025 — View changes

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7: Meaning of unknown authorship, or

"What happens when we don't know who wrote something"

9: Meaning of issue to the public, or

"What issue to the public means in the Copyright Act"

8Meaning of copyright owner

Where copyright or any aspect of copyright is owned by more than 1 person jointly, references in this Act to the copyright owner, or to the owner of the copyright in the work, are to all owners.
Where different persons are entitled to different aspects of copyright in a work, the copyright owner for any purpose of this Act is the person who is entitled to the aspect of copyright relevant for that purpose.
Subject to the provisions of Part 7, where a question arises under this Act whether an object of any description has been imported, sold, or otherwise dealt with other than pursuant to a copyright licence, the copyright owner shall be taken to be the person entitled to the copyright in respect of its application to the making of objects of that description in the country into which the object was imported or in which it was sold or otherwise dealt with.

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1962 No 33 s 3(10)