New Zealand Acts

COPYRIGHT ACT 1994 - SECT 21

21 First ownership of copyright

1 Subject to the provisions of this section, the person who is the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

2 Where an employee makes, in the course of his or her employment, a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work, that person's employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

3 Where—

a) a person commissions, and pays or agrees to pay for, the taking of a photograph or the making of a computer program, painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart, plan, engraving, model, sculpture, film, or sound recording; and

b) the work is made in pursuance of that commission,—

that person is the first owner of any copyright in the work.

4 Subsections (2) and (3) apply subject to any agreement to the contrary.

5 Subsections (1) to (4) apply subject to sections 26 and 28 .

Note: 1962 No 33 ss 9, 13(4), 14(4) ; Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s 11 (UK)