Cc-au mailing list

[Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au>]

Hi all

 

I’m sure that a good number of the people on this list have, like us, spent much of the morning reading the two big copyright cases that were just handed down by the Australian courts. We are very chuffed for iiNet (and impressed with Cowdroy J’s thorough reasoning – read the excellent summary at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/24.html) and sad for Men at Work (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/29.html).

 

But lost in all this copyright excitement we have another excellent piece of news – the Victorian Government has just committed to using Creative Commons as the default licensing system for all its public sector information (http://www.diird.vic.gov.au/diird-projects/access-to-public-sector-information).

 

 The commitment is part of its response to the report coming from its Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee’s Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data (http://www.creativecommons.org.au/node/250), which recommended that the Victorian Government adopt a “hybrid public sector information licensing model comprising Creative Commons and a tailored suite of licences for restricted materials.” Specifically, the Government “endorses the committee’s overarching recommendation that the default position for the management of PSI should be open access. The Victorian Government further commits to the development of a whole-of-government Information Management Framework (IMF) whereby PSI is made available under Creative Commons licensing by default with a tailored suite of licences for restricted materials.”

 

As well as accepting the committee’s CC recommendation without reservation, in its response the Victorian Government cites favourably CC-friendly recommendations from the Government 2.0 and Venturous Australia reports and endorses the CC default licensing systems used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Queensland’s Government Information Licensing Framework.

 

So definitely a good day to be a free culture advocate in Oz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica Coates

Project Manager

Creative Commons Clinic

Queensland University of Technology

 

ph: 07 3138 8301

fax: 07 3138 9395

email: j2.coates AT qut.edu.au