Map copyright increases unset tourism bodies

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 7

Map copyright increases unset tourism bodies

Big increases in copyright charges for Lands and Survey Department maps may prevent nonprofit tourist bodies like the Canterbury Promotion Council from putting out new maps and visitors’ guides, says the council’s president, Mr David Watson.

Mr Watson agreed with the chief executive of the New Zealand Tourist Federation, Mr Tony Stani-

ford, that the Government’s “user-pays” principle was being taken to "ludicrous lengths” over copyright charges. Copyright costs for one guide, published by the Motel Association, were cited as increasing from a token $250 to $27,000. Mr Watson said the Canterbury Promotion Council could well have difficulty financing another guide, even if it charged visitors for them. “Obviously we will have to look for alternatives to Lands and Survey maps,” he said. He thought the fact that New Zealand was one of

the few countries to offer so much free information for visitors was no justification for the Tourism and Publicity Department having a monopoly. However, Mr Staniford’s suggestion that non-profit bodies be exempt from copyright charges would be “pretty hard” to police as non-profit bodies often passed maps on to other groups. Mr Watson said there were no plans for another guide at the moment and he did not know if there would be charges for reprinting old material. Any cost increase would have to be met by the

tourist in the long run, however, and they were already faced with 10 per cent more expense through GST. The Tourist Industry Federation said it was annoyed that the Government recognised the problem for its own agencies such as the Tourist and Publicity Department by providing additional funds to cover the copyright charges. Many of these publications were for overseas promotion, said Mr Jeff Tippen, regional manager of the Christchurch branch of the Tourism and Publicity Department.