Government reels in parallel video, DVD imports

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Parallel imports of films, videos and DVDs will be barred until nine months after the international release of the titles involved, under proposed legislation.

Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard said the ban - which will come into force next year - was to protect the creators and distributors of movies.

She and Commerce Minister Paul Swain also announced yesterday plans to change the laws which govern the onus of proof in cases of piracy.

The moves follow a review of how parallel importing has affected the creative industries.

The Government has excluded software, CDs and books in the meantime, although they will be kept under review.

"It seemed to us the major problem [with software, CDs and books] is mainly piracy and not parallel importing," said Ms Tizard.

But one parallel importer of DVDs said yesterday that his business would now have to be re-evaluated, and he claimed more unrated movies would go into circulation.

Ms Tizard said the Government's concern was about the commercial rights of intellectual property holders to decide how and when their products were released.

"The New Zealand law currently says we are not prepared to enforce that."

It seemed silly to promote a knowledge society while overriding the rights of those making and distributing movies.

Distributors and cinema owners had invested a lot of money and were finding they were unable to recoup that because imported DVDs and videos were coming out before cinema releases.

Ms Tizard said Hollywood would welcome the move - and the New Zealand film industry had already done so.

She and Mr Swain said the nine-month ban would give the film distribution industry time to allow the orderly release of films, videos and DVDs.

In parallel importing, retailers can bypass an authorised importer and seek goods from a legal producer in a different country.

Auckland retailer DVD World said the decision threatened its business.

Operations manager Chris Cox said Mr Swain's office had told him in the past fortnight that the Government would not ban parallel-imported DVDs.

"Swain's office said they were not considering any such legislation. We got fed absolute rubbish. That's unacceptable."

Since 1998, when the National Government ended a ban on parallel-importing, DVD World has built a thriving business supplying video chains with DVDs before the material's scheduled New Zealand release dates.

Studios claim the practice damaged cinema ticket sales, but Mr Cox said the company had provided a vastly improved range of titles from the United States.

A much bigger range of titles is available in the US (Zone 1) - around 10,000 - than is sold in Australasia (Zone 4), where only about 500 titles are available.

Mr Cox warned that DVD importing would now go underground. People would get movies from the internet, and more non-rated movies would enter circulation.

But Video Ezy International's joint managing director, Russell Clark, welcomed the Government's plans, saying they would help the home-entertainment industry and create a level playing field.

The decision followed a recent High Court ruling that film distributors had the sole right to dictate who could rent out their products and when.

Whitcoulls national books manager Joan Mackenzie welcomed the decision not to ban parallel-import books, which would have affected the company.

"There's no change for us. There would have been an impact if they had reimposed the ban."

She would not comment on the impact on Whitcoulls' video and DVD business.

The ministers also announced new piracy provisions, which include a presumption that defendants suspected of importing pirated goods have to prove their innocence.

They said the changes would make it easier for people holding the rights to take action against those blatantly importing pirated material.