Forced charity: Is that fair on Kiwi authors?

compensation. It has been a significant issue in the digital age for many producers of content, whether it be video, audio or print to get compensated for their work.

A main example is tech giants such as Facebook and Google making money by selling ads alongside news content that is shared and hosted on their platforms.

The journalists who produce this content don’t earn a share of the profits made from advertisements. We’re now seeing Australia looking to implement changes to ensure journalists do get compensated, and it’s promising to see that New Zealand will look at doing the same. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be looking at ensuring authors of works used to provide a public benefit to people with a print disability are also compensated.

One way we could do this is to increase funding for the Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors scheme.

This scheme provides for New Zealand authors, illustrators, and editors to receive payments in recognition of the fact that their books are available for use in New Zealand libraries.

It would make sense for the Government to update the terms of the fund and to provide some benefit to these authors given they are now legally required to give their work out for free.

Few authors would argue about increasing opportunities for those with a disability, and I believe few people would argue against providing these authors with compensation from a relatively small taxpayer-funded scheme.