The NBR said today it had settled with Internal Affairs (DIA), the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) “after each admitted to sharing articles in an alleged breach of NBR’s copyright and subscription terms and conditions”.
The terms of the settlements were confidential, the NBR said, but it had also secured settlements from 19 companies, resulting in payments for damages of more than $200,000, as well as legal costs.
“That has ensured they are paying fairly for their subscriptions and allowed NBR to keep subscription prices steady for everyone,” the NBR said in a statement.
The NBR said it was also seeking $50,000 in damages and legal costs from Inland Revenue and was entering into talks on damages with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
In July, the Chief Ombudsman found MBIE’s sharing of paywalled business journalism was “inappropriate”, “unreasonable” and “appears to be contrary to law”. He said it also likely harmed the NBR’s commercial position.
The NBR said MBIE had apologised last week, along with a “promise to send a proposal to rectify the matter this week”.
The precedent-setting Chief Ombudsman’s opinion has been hailed as a victory for safeguarding copyright journalism.
Many New Zealand news websites – including the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk, Stuff’s masthead titles and Newsroom, among others – publish subscription journalism.
The NBR’s terms and conditions state that a subscription log-on cannot be shared with others and that doing so breaches copyright. Similarly, paywalled articles cannot be cut, pasted and distributed.
“Copyright theft isn’t clever. It isn’t a loophole. And it certainly isn’t victimless,” NBR co-owner Todd Scott said.
“Every person or organisation that takes journalism they haven’t paid for is effectively asking our loyal, paying members to subsidise them.
“We won’t allow that. If you choose to steal our journalism rather than pay for it, we will hold you accountable. Not because we need to. Because our members shouldn’t have to pay for people who think the rules don’t apply to them.”
NBR co-owners Todd and Jackie Scott.
The NBR said it had been advised that MBIE shared at least 149 articles; Inland Revenue at least 43 articles; the DIA at least 23 articles; and the SFO at least 15.
“The FMA initially denied any breach, but on further investigation admitted to the Ombudsman [that] there were seven instances of FMA staff members sharing either screenshots or PDFs of NBR articles,” the NBR said in its statement today.
“It apologised to NBR and acknowledged it should not have happened. The DIA, meanwhile, has admitted as many as 210 unauthorised DIA staff accessed NBR articles in 2025 and 144 people in 2024.”
Meanwhile, the NBR says it has also filed legal action against private investment firm Snowball Effect. It said it could not comment further on the claim as the matter was now before the courts.
Snowball Effect has been approached for comment.
Agencies respond
Media Insider also sought comment from the five government departments.
An Internal Affairs spokeswoman said on Sunday: “We can confirm that we are making a payment of just over $21,600 (including GST) to NBR in relation to use of NBR’s online subscription service by DIA staff.
“The payment covers the cost of the online NBR subscriptions we would have needed for our staff to access these articles.
“We have reminded all staff about their copyright obligations and will continue to monitor how staff use media subscriptions.”
The FMA, Inland Revenue and SFO are expected to respond today.
MBIE confirmed on Sunday it had “offered an apology to NBR for the unauthorised sharing of their content”.
“We can also confirm that we are in discussions regarding remediation,” MBIE deputy secretary corporate and digital shared services Paul Stocks said.
“MBIE takes its obligations relating to copyright, licensing agreements, and the management of third-party content seriously.”
Stocks said since becoming aware of the unauthorised sharing of NBR content, MBIE had “strengthened compliance measures, increased the number of NBR subscriptions available to staff, updated internal guidance and communications on staff obligations, and improved the overall management of subscriptions”.
“MBIE is committed to working constructively with NBR to resolve this matter. As discussions are ongoing, we have no further comment.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.