“To find that a great national library like that of New Zealand is collaborating in a scheme to break the cherished copyright laws and give our work away for nothing is profoundly shocking,” said Pullman, the president of the United Kingdom Society of Authors, in a recent letter sent to the library.

This week Wellington QC Hugh Rennie sent a separate letter to National Librarian Rachel Esson, alleging the library was taking legal advice from a lawyer unauthorised to practise in Aotearoa.