Students at tertiary education libraries would find that they have less access to digital works if New Zealand signs a trade agreement with the US and other countries, Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Standing Committee on Copyright Chair Tony Millett has warned.
New Zealand is currently negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) with a number of countries, including the US.
Trade officials are currently negotiating the pact in secrecy and hence no one knows what is on the table, or what will be included in the final agreement.
“Changes to the New Zealand Copyright Law will have a serious impact on New Zealand libraries. For instance, under the present law, copyright continues until 50 years after the death of an author or creator of the work. With every free trade agreement that America has negotiated (Australia is an example), the other country has been forced to extend copyright duration for 70 years or longer.
“It is almost certain that the TPPA will require a similar extension of copyright duration. There will be a longer period before works come into the public domain and digitised; works already digitised (for example through the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre) may have to be withdrawn; and it will be much more difficult than it already is to trace copyright owners to seek permission to copy or use their work,” he said.
Mr Millet said that most scholarship and research were built on older scholarship and hence the TPPA could impede students’ scholarly endeavours.
“Extending copyright duration will not benefit the original authors or creators (since they are long gone) but will benefit only their heirs and successors, and more particularly large corporate organisations that claim copyright ownership of the original works,” he said.
LIANZA is also concerned that the TPPA may drive up the cost of imported books by banning parallel importing; limit university, polytechnic and wānanga libraries’ ability to make available audio-visual material like DVDs; and require Internet Service Providers (including universities, polytechnics and their libraries) to terminate internet access to users who are alleged to have infringed copyright.
According to Mr Millett, trade officials should not negotiate international intellectual property and copyright standards behind closed doors, with no opportunity for input, advice and comment from affected stakeholders such as public tertiary education institution libraries.
