Parliament has passed a bill extending a ban on the parallel imports of movies.

Under the Copyright Act, parallel importation of films is banned for nine months after a movie is first released but the ban was due to expire at the end of October.

The new law extends that ban until 2016, but only for the first five months after a movie's release.

The Government says the law change will give the film industry the time to finish converting to digital technology, as well as ensuring the distribution model reflects developments in the market for films, particularly online.