1. Reproduction Right - Storage and Digitisation
1.1 Telecom supports the Ministry's preferred policy response. While the present definition of "copying" in the Copyright Act is likely capable of encompassing digitisation, as a digital copy is likely not excluded by the words "in any material form", further clarification would be appropriate and helpful.
1.2 Telecom notes the Ministry's preliminary view that this clarification could be achieved by amending the current definition of "copying" to state that material form includes digital formats, rather than inserting a separate definition for material form, which is currently not defined. In addition, the clarification should encompass any form of future technology, including those that may not strictly be viewed as digital (eg, optical, photonic, electrical etc). It may be that a separate definition of "material form" would provide a clearer drafting solution, such as that adopted in the Australian Copyright Act 1968:
Material form, in relation to a work or an adaptation of a work, includes any form (whether visible or not) of storage from which the work or adaptation, or a substantial part of the work or adaptation, can be reproduced.
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