educational copying

New Zealand

Screenrights agreements with New Zealand educational institutions give schools, universities and polytechnics, colleges and Wananga a comprehensive right to tape programmes from television and radio in exchange for the payment of an annual fee.

Screenrights is a non-profit company that distributes all money it collects to the producers, writers and other rightsholders in the programs you tape, after deducting its administrative overheads only.

The Screenrights licence has been established under provisions in the New Zealand Copyright Act that provide educators with access to an important educational resource while ensuring payment to the rightsholders who make the programmes teachers and academics want to use.

The Screenrights licence is versatile and flexible. You can:

  • Copy any programme, anytime, anywhere
  • Copy in any format - VHS, DVD, CD, PC
  • Copy anything on free to air, pay TV or radio
  • Copy entire programmes or excerpts
  • Make copies of copies
  • Show tapes in class or the library
  • Keep copies as resources in your library
  • Make up compilation tapes of material you have copied

Copying without a Screenrights licence

Under the New Zealand Copyright Act, educational institutions that don't have a Screenrights licence may infringe copyright if they copy any programmes covered by the agreement. Failure to get a Screenrights licence therefore means that you will miss out on a comprehensive right to tape from television and radio.

Audiovisual material being copied

The following chart represents the breakdown of audiovisual material being copied by New Zealand and Australian educational institutions in 2006.

Types of AV material copied by Australian and New Zealand educational institutions

More information

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Filming EnhanceTV on TTN Network Ten
				 2006 Filming EnhanceTV on TTN, Network Ten

EnhanceTV is brilliant. It provides us with ad-free missed programs, complete series and even 'theme packs' to support an area of study. The free study guides are easy to download and print and the weekly newsletters are packed with information.
- Amanda Green Audio Visual Librarian Cranbrook School, NSW