Law / New Zealand

Copyright Act 1994, Fair Dealing for Reporting Current Events

Copyright Act 1994 (NZ), No 143, s. 42

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

In force since 1 January 1995.

A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 6 September 2026.

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of reporting current events by means of a sound recording, film, or communication work does not infringe copyright; fair dealing with a work other than a photograph for reporting current events by any other means does not infringe copyright provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.

Neither subsection creates a blanket exception for a news aggregator's routine reproduction of headlines or extracts; the dealing must still be fair, judged on the specific facts, and directed at reporting current events rather than merely republishing another outlet's content.

What it reaches

Instrument type

statute

Categories

Snippet reproduction

Read the law

official consolidated Act text, New Zealand Legislation

archived copyRead from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived January 29, 2026. Publisher's page: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/whole.html

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