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Copyright Act 1994

Performers' rights - Performers’ rights relating to film

174: Infringement by importing, possessing, or dealing with illicit recording

You could also call this:

"Breaking copyright law by importing or selling illegal recordings"

Illustration for Copyright Act 1994

You infringe a performer's rights if you import a recording into New Zealand without their consent, unless it's for your private use. You also infringe their rights if you possess, sell or distribute a recording as part of a business, without the performer's consent. This applies to recordings that are films and that you know or think are illicit. If you are taken to court for infringing a performer's rights and you can show you got the recording innocently, you might have to pay damages. This means you did not know the recording was illicit when you got it. You will only have to pay a reasonable amount for what you did.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM346828.

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173: Copying of film recordings, or

"Copying a film without the performer's okay is against the law"

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174A: Application, or

"Rules for Sound Recordings in New Zealand"

Part 9Performers' rights
Performers’ rights relating to film

174Infringement by importing, possessing, or dealing with illicit recording

  1. A performer's rights are infringed by a person who, without the performer's consent,—

  2. imports into New Zealand otherwise than for that person's private and domestic use; or
    1. in the course of a business, possesses, sells, lets for hire, offers or exposes for sale or hire, or distributes—
        1. a recording that is a film and that is, and that the person knows or has reason to believe is, an illicit recording.

      1. Where, in proceedings for infringement of a performer's rights brought under this section, a defendant shows that the recording was innocently acquired by the defendant or a predecessor in title of the defendant, the only remedy available against the defendant in respect of the infringement is damages not exceeding a reasonable payment in respect of the act complained of.

      2. In subsection (2), the term innocently acquired means that the person acquiring the recording did not know, and had no reason to believe, that it was an illicit recording.

      Notes
      • Section 174(1): amended, on , by section 23 of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Amendment Act 2018 (2016 No 90).