Copyright Act 1994, Technological Protection Measures
Copyright Act 1994 (NZ), No 143, ss. 226A, 226C
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 31 October 2008.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not make, import, sell, distribute, or advertise a device, or provide a service or publish information, intended to circumvent a technological protection measure if you know or have reason to believe it will be used to infringe copyright in the protected work.
- Doing so in the course of business, with actual knowledge of the resulting infringement, is a separate criminal offence.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Under s. 226C, a person who, in the course of business, deals in a TPM circumvention device, service, or information, knowing it will be used to infringe copyright, commits an offence; the Act does not state the penalty within the text of s. 226C itself.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Access restriction
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
A person must not make, import, sell, distribute, or advertise a device that circumvents a technological protection measure, provide a service intended to circumvent one, or publish information enabling circumvention, if that person knows or has reason to believe it will be used to infringe copyright in the protected work.
Doing so in the course of business, with actual knowledge rather than mere reason to believe, is a separate offence under section 226C. This targets trafficking in circumvention devices, services, and information rather than the act of a scraper's own access, so it reaches a tool-builder or reseller more directly than a party that merely uses an existing circumvention method to collect data.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
official consolidated Act text, New Zealand Legislation