Archives, copyright and film : an analysis of copyright for film archives

Abstract

This paper will present research and interpretation on two areas of New Zealand copyright law. Firstly, it will explain the ways that film has been protected by copyright in New Zealand. Secondly, it will illustrate the development of the rights gained by archives under copyright legislation. It will then address the issues and considerations that arise or occur when an organisation archives film. It is hoped that issues raised in this paper will be seriously considered when future legislative changes are made to the Copyright Act 1994. This research has been undertaken with the knowledge and support of the New Zealand Film Archive (NZFA) and that archive provides a focus for much of this paper. The findings of this research will have most relevance to archives that collect film and moving image materials. However, the research is also likely to have value for any archive that focuses on archiving a specific form of works (such as film or sound recordings) as well as other archives. Very little legal research has been conducted on this subject Even then, such commentary usually focuses primarily on broadcasting, only mentioning archives in passing. Much can be said in social and cultural terms, about copyright law and its application to archives. However, it should be noted that the intention of this paper is to present legal issues that predominantly arise from the Copyright Act 1994. This research has been undertaken to fulfil requirements of an LLM research paper. As stated it attempts to look at the junction where archives and film copyright meet. In that respect this paper deals with a broad range of issues that spring directly from copyright legislation. However, some attention will be placed on the problems encountered when archives seek to preserve and therefore have some control over Taonga Maori.