The publishers of the National Business Review have temporarily banned SkyCity Entertainment Group and are seeking legal advice for alleged copyright breaches after leaked internal emails at the listed casino operator showed it was distributing articles to staff using one subscription.
SkyCity admitted the breach and said it was reviewing its practices around copyright obligations.
Earlier this week, NBR was provided screenshots of emails sent from a generic SkyCity communications email address to staff, which included links to media mentions of the company as well as PDF versions of those articles.
The person that provided those screenshots said the internal comms team at SkyCity has been saving NBR articles as PDF documents, then attaching them as emails and distributing them.
There is only one NBR subscription linked to a SkyCity email address, however, and NBR’s terms and conditions specify that a subscription cannot be shared with others and to do so is a breach of copyright.
The most recent SkyCity email NBR was provided related to the NBR article, The top local stocks of 2025, published on December 23, 2025, while the earliest example provided was from September, 2024.
In response to NBR's enquiries, a SkyCity spokesman said the company had immediately put in place steps to review its own practices.
"SkyCity reviewed the internal distribution of a small number of NBR articles that pertained solely to the company and has discontinued the practice ... We take our copyright obligations seriously and are strengthening our internal processes to ensure they are appropriate." 
NBR has been cracking down on such behaviour over the past few months and has obtained settlements from four firms for similar behaviour, while also banning global financial services giant Macquarie last week for alleged breaches. The Inland Revenue Department, meanwhile, last year admitted it shared NBR articles with hundreds of staff in breach of the publication’s copyright – a move that caused a loss of at least $36,000 to NBR.
Following the leaked emails, NBR publisher Todd Scott has temporarily banned SkyCity and sought legal advice.
“It is encouraging to see our efforts to ensure businesses and government departments pay their fair share for media in New Zealand has emboldened a whistleblower to bravely call out this behaviour at a large, high-profile organisation,” Scott said. “SkyCity gambled against the wrong publisher.”
Clear target
Scott reiterated other businesses that were breaching NBR’s copyright should swiftly move to purchase the appropriate number of subscriptions. The publication has developed a sophisticated system to flag those who were breaching its terms and copyright conditions and would continue to take action against them.
"When we first took action against three large firms for sharing small numbers of subscriptions widely among their staff, we warned others had until the end of November to purchase the appropriate number of subscriptions for their usage.
“With the passing of that deadline, NBR will take action against those who continue to steal our content. Large organisations with very few subscriptions who feature in NBR or have an obvious interest in our leading business and political news and analysis are a clear target for our ongoing investigations ...
“Following a couple of years in which several high-profile media businesses have folded in this country, New Zealand businesses and government departments need to ensure they are backing the industry appropriately.”
Scott has also banned the IRD from taking future subscriptions to NBR and plans to lodge legal action with the District Court to recoup damages this year, after talks over an appropriate damages payment ended when the tax department refused to budge on a settlement offer much lower than the subscription cost it should have paid to fairly share NBR articles with 600 staff.
