Copyright reform has pitched the interests of technology businesses such as Google against those of Hollywood and other rights holders.

Google's top lawyer lobbied Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi to loosen New Zealand's copyright law during a trip to New Zealand, documents released under the Official Information Act appear to confirm.

The documents suggest Google is unsure whether search engines are "strictly in compliance" with the existing Copyright Act and has argued it could impede the take up of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Faafoi had hoped to release a paper by the end of July setting out options for a long-awaited reform of the Copyright Act.

He met with Google's chief counsel Kent Walker on June 22 on the advice of officials – a day after Google hosted fellow ministers Andrew Little and Clare Curran and officials at a controversial dinner held under the "Chatham House" rule at the capital's Wellington Club.

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Those ministers' attendance at the dinner was criticised by National's open government spokesman Nick Smith last month – given Google could be affected by a number of law changes that are under consideration and the Chatham House rule prevented ministers and officials from disclosing who said what.

Walker was on Monday promoted to Google's senior vice president of global affairs.

GETTY IMAGES A visit by Google's top lawyer to NZ didn't go undocumented, thanks to a meeting with Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi (above).

Notes taken by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials of his meeting with Faafoi indicate Walker lobbied for "fair use type provisions" within the Copyright Act, suggesting the exact details of what would or wouldn't be allowed under the law could be left to the courts.

That more liberal approach is broadly opposed by copyright owners.

A Google spokesman confirmed Walker did believe New Zealand had a "very traditional approach" to copyright and thought a "more flexible and forward-looking approach" would encourage new kinds of experimentation and innovation in fields such as AI.

Paula Browning, chief executive of interest group Copyright Licensing NZ, said one of the benefits of the existing law and the certainty it provided was "we don't go to court every five minutes".

"The idea we would slip that on its head and be burdening the court in order to make law doesn't sit very well with me," she said.

Browning also rejected the suggestion that copyright laws were holding back innovation.

"There is an awful lot of business happening in New Zealand involving tech startups that suggest the law is not broken. We have got 28,000 tech companies under the Act we have got, so it doesn't seem to be stopping us doing fabulous things."

There were only impediments to machine learning if people wanted to use other people's information, she said.

"If you are looking at companies that are doing AI, they are using data that is theirs.

"If you want to have a 'data grab of other people stuff' to use for your business then, okay, maybe there are things in the way of you doing that."

The MBIE officials' notes indicated Walker raised the possibility that the role of "content ID" – commonly associated with digital water-marking – could be recognised in the copyright reforms.

The term describes the technique of securely embedding rights information in the likes of online videos, so their ownership can be traced.

The European Union was looking at giving such measures legal recognition, Browning said.

An MBIE memo to Faafoi said its officials had been meeting regularly with Google representatives in the lead up to the release of the copyright issues paper and Google had provided "valuable insights into some of the key issues facing the technology sector and users of copyright".

Google's New Zealand lobbyist, Ross Young, had supported allowing interested parties to make cross-submissions on others' proposals which was "an idea worth considering", they added.

Browning said she had talked to MBIE about the need to ensure that organisations that did not have big resources had a fair chance to engage in the copyright reform process.

"I think MBIE are aware that there is a variation between the larger and the smaller stakeholders and they seem to be trying to ensure everybody has equal opportunity to have a say.

"I am always concerned when things happen behind closed doors," she said.

Google's spokesman said "like many organisations we meet with ministers from time to time".