Cc-au mailing list

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

Government material in Australia is covered by default by Crown copyright, which lasts for 50 years from the date of the creation of the material. So the same ‘all rights reserved’ rules apply to PSI – you can’t use it unless you have the government’s permission or an exception applies. This contrasts with the US, which doesn’t apply copyright to material produced by the government.

 

This, of course, only applies to materials that are covered by copyright, and in theory at least some purely information-based materials (eg data sets) shouldn’t be protected. However, the Desktop Marketing case in 2001 (which said that the Yellow Pages was covered by copyright) set the test for protection in Australia extremely low, and hence there has been a lot of uncertainty about whether even pure data is protected here.

 

The result is that legislation, cases, Hansard, government publications etc are all covered by full copyright in Australia, and even government data sets (like ABS material) may be/probably are. So you need a licence to use them – and the government has been very adamant about this in the past (eg they refused to let Open Australia republish the Hansard). At the moment this usually involves writing to the relevant government department (for the Federal Government the Commonwealth Copyright Administration at the Attorney General’s Department) for case-by-case permissions – definitely a cumbersome process, particularly as most government material is intended to be reused.

 

Hence the push for centralised copyright policies that set clear rules on how government material can be used, preferably using open licences for at least the majority of material, to remove at some of the barriers to use of publicly funded products.

 

I hope that answers your question.

 

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

From: cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Margie Borschke
Sent: Friday, 5 February 2010 8:46 AM
To: cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [cc-au] Questions about government use of CC

 

What were the limitations on the use of public sector information in the past? (I've been wondering the same about the Australian Bureau of Statistics use of CC.) 

 

Is the use of a CC license a case of making sure there is no confusion that public information can be used without asking permission?

 

 

 

On 04/02/2010, at 6:59 PM, Jessica Coates wrote:

What they’ve said so far is that they’re committed to introducing a whole of government licensing system that uses CC as the default – so that should mean widespread implementation, rather than particular projects.

 

But I’m sure we’ll hear more in the next few weeks/months.

 

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

From: cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Casey, Liam
Sent: Thursday, 4 February 2010 5:04 PM
To: cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [cc-au] Big day for Australia copyright - and CC too!

 

Any mention of specific CC projects they're committing to doing?

 

Liam Casey, Senior Project Officer

Creative Industries Sectoral Development
Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation

 

Level 10, 111 George St, Brisbane Queensland 4000
PO Box 15168, City East Queensland 4002
T +61 7 3225 8408 F +61 7 3225 8754
E liam.casey AT deedi.qld.gov.au

www.deedi.qld.gov.au

 

 

---

From: cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:cc-au-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jessica Coates
Sent: Thursday, 4 February 2010 4:14 PM
To: cc-au AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [cc-au] Big day for Australia copyright - and CC too!

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

 

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