A typical software licence agreement will prohibit the licensee’s right to copy, decompile and reverse engineer the software without the licensor's prior written consent. Following the Ministry of Economic Development's recommendations to the Government in the Digital Technology and the Copyright Act Position Paper in 2002, the enactment of the Copyright (New Technologies and Performer’s Rights) Amendment Bill (Bill) will, to a limited extent, override such provisions. In this article, we examine the proposed rights and restrictions on software users in the Bill in respect of copying, decompiling and reverse engineering software programs.