The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA), representing 450 New Zealand libraries, has joined with sister library organisations in other TPP countries and an international umbrella group to voice their concerns.
Tony Millet of Auckland, a former librarian at Waikato University and a LIANZA copyright specialist, said if the US succeeded in getting a ban on parallel importation written back into New Zealand laws, it would force up the cost for libraries of buying books.
It would also slow down the speed at which books were supplied to libraries.
Parallel importing, which was legalised in 1998, is when a lawfully made product is imported but not through the producer's local representative.
On the issue of extending the duration of copyright, Mr Millet said it would not benefit authors because the copyright extended beyond death.
It would add restrictions to what libraries were able to digitise now and affect end-users because they would not have access to them.
In the United States, the duration of copyright is 70 years for creative and artistic works produced after 1978.
Australia used to have a 50-year duration like New Zealand but changed it to 70 years in 2006 as part of its bilateral free trade agreement with the United States.
Mr Millet said there was also a concern that there could be an increase in the protection given to technological protection measures (TPMs) on material such as videos and DVDs (such as the zone restrictions on DVDs) which would prevent libraries overriding TPMs for their users.
This has been permitted in New Zealand since 2008.
