2.45pm
Legislation banning parallel importing of new films, DVDs, VHS videos and video CDs for commercial use was passed in Parliament under urgency this morning.
The Copyright (Parallel Importation of Films and Onus of Proof) Amendment Act was intended to address the effects of parallel importing and copyright piracy on the creative
industries.
The Government, the Green Party, New Zealand First and United Future voted for the legislation, which passed 82 votes to 35.
National and ACT voted against it.
It will:
* prohibit the parallel importing of new motion picture films, DVDs, VHS videos, and video CDs for nine months from a title's first international release. It will be in place for five years, effective immediately;
* put the burden of proof on the defendant, who must establish an imported work is not an infringing copy;
* protect legitimate parallel importers; and
* clarify existing provisions relating to rental rights where copyright works are parallel imported.
Associate commerce minister Judith Tizard told the House that the Government wanted a vibrant and active creative industry in which New Zealanders could earn a living.
"These changes will assist copyright owners to take effective action against piracy, which is destroying the incomes of many New Zealand creative producers and the people they license to sell those goods," she said.
National Party MP Tony Ryall said the legislation had not put in place measures promised by Prime Minister Helen Clark, such as a two-year ban on software, imported books, and films.
"This was a promise made on the hoof to curry favour with a small group that the prime minister likes to [be] feted by," he said.
"It never stacked up, it was always a joke, and the prime minister was told this by the public servants and by those people who submitted to two rounds of consultation."
Act MP Deborah Coddington said the legislation was no more than a payoff to the prime minister's friends in the arts.
"It's also a feeble attempt to appease American interests," she said, as the Government was bowing to US wishes to ban parallel importing.
Cinema owners believed parallel importing was contributing to a decline in cinema audiences that could threaten the survival of cinemas in small and rural communities.
National said the bill was anti-business, anti-competition and anti-choice.
- NZPA
