Professor Anne Fitzgerald
Queensland University of Technology
15 June 2012
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Government (Crown) Copyright
 Vast amounts of government copyright materials
 Copyright applies to:
 Informational works
 Research outputs (reports, papers, databases)
 Cultural materials
(Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), Part VII)
 Public Sector Information (PSI) in a broad sense includes
material that is:
 created within government by government employees;
 produced externally by recipients of government funding; or
 prepared by non-government parties and lodged with government
under a statutory obligation or regulatory direction.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Creating information flows
 Complexity of information pathways:
 within government – among departments, agencies, different levels
of government; between government and community:

from government to community; from community to government to
community; from local to national to global
 Problem of “licence logjams”
 Copyright has been relied on by governments to control access (to
prevent flow of information or to preserve commercial rights)
 Often, there is no licence, so access/use/reuse rights are unknown –
high transaction cost of negotiating new licences
 Where licences exist, terms are incomprehensible or inconsistent
 Promoting the flow of information requires appropriate
policy frameworks and licensing practices
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
CC and the national information
strategy
• National information policy has various platform
components – FoI/Right to Information; data protection;
information standards
• Most countries worldwide recognise government copyright
in a wide range of data/information/content
• BUT, in many instances governments rely on copyright to impose
restrictions on use/reuse, for various reasons (eg commercial
arrangments)
• Government copyright needs to be managed to support
openness
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Australian Government IP Manual and Guidelines
on Licensing PSI (2012)
 Australian Government (Attorney General’s Department) recently
released two documents (under CC BY 3.0 Australian licence) which
implement the Government’s Statement of Intellectual Property
Principles for Australian Government Agencies:
 Guidelines on Licensing Public Sector Information for Australian
Government Agencies; and
 Australian Government Intellectual Property Manual (“IP Manual”).
 Chapter 9 of the IP Manual (which deals with “Sharing and Granting
Public Access to IP”) makes it clear that PSI should be released free of
charge under a CC BY Australian licence by default.
 Refers to our CC and Government webpage for more detailed
information.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Chapter 9 – IP Manual (2012)
Part of the Commonwealth’s response [to the
Government 2.0 Taskforce’s report Engage: Getting on
with Government 2.0 (2009)] is to make PSI available
under the default Creative Commons BY licence
(otherwise known as an attribution licence) which
allows the greatest access to potential users.
Agencies are now required to make licensing
decisions about whether to use Creative Commons
licences (or other open content licences) when
publicly releasing their PSI. Australian Government
agencies subject to the FMA Act are expected to comply
with this default, with CAC Act agencies asked to
consider this position as an expression of good practice.”
[emphasis added] (at p 183)
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Chapter 9 – IP Manual (2012)
 “There is detailed information on the Creative
Commons Australia website about Government use
of Creative Commons licences:
http://creativecommons.org.au/sectors/government .
The international Creative Commons website also
includes a simple tool to help select an appropriate
Creative Commons licence:
http://creativecommons.org/choose/ - note however
that you must specify Australia as the relevant
jurisdiction in order to generate an Australian
version of the license in question.” [emphasis added]
(at p 187)
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/
What ComLaw content is licensed under Creative Commons?
Except as noted above, all ComLaw content is licensed under a Crea
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia (th
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence) . You are free:
•to Share - to copy, distribute and transmit the content, and
•to Remix - to adapt the content
Under the following conditions:
•Attribution - You must attribute ComLaw content in the man
we specify, but not in any way that suggests that we endorse yo
your use of the material
•Non-commercial - You may not use this work for commercial
purposes, and
•Share Alike - If you alter, transform, or build upon ComLaw
content, you may distribute the resulting work only under the
same or similar licence to this one.
Australian Electoral Commission
 AEC applied the CC BY 3.0 Australia licence as a
default licence for all the material on its website.
 The AEC is responsible for conducting federal
elections and referendums and maintaining the
Commonwealth electoral roll. It also provides a range
of electoral information and education programs and
activities.
 The AEC’s classroom resources page and publications
page, which has a range of educational resources
available under CC BY. There is also a range of
translated information for people from non-English
speaking backgrounds.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Queensland Police
 QPS Statistical Review (Statistics 1998 – 2011)
 http://www.police.qld.gov.au/services/reportspublications/statisticalrevie
w/default.htm
 “Disaster Management and Social Media - a case study”, Queensland
Police Service (July 2011)
 QPS report on their experience using Social Media in the 2011 flood and Cyclone Yasi
emergencies
 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
 See
http://www.police.qld.gov.au/Resources/Internet/services/reportsPublications/docu
ments/QPSSocialMediaCaseStudy.pdf
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
http://pool.abc.net.au
/
http://pool.abc.net.au/content/pool-special-conditionsuse
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Were many …..
1990s: Cutler, Wainwright – digital content strategy proposals
2001: Office of Spatial Data Management (OSDM) access and reuse policy
2004: Launch of Creative Commons in Australia
2004: Launch by Queensland Government of Spatial Information Licensing Project
2005: Unlocking the Potential: Digital Content Industry Action Agenda, Strategic Industry Leaders Group report to the
Australian Government
2005 – 2006: Queensland Government’s Government Information Licensing Framework (GILF) proposed use of Creative
Commons licensing for PSI 2007 – 2010: GILF project continues as a Queensland Government-QUT collaboration, developing knowledge about and
models for use of CC on PSI
2007 on: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Geoscience Australia (GA), Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) implement open
access and adopt CC licensing; National Library of Australia; Australian Broadcasting Corporation; various State and local
government initiatives
2008: OECD Ministerial Seoul Declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy - OECD Recommendations on publicly
funded research (2006) and Access to PSI (2008)
2008: Venturous Australia report on National Innovation System (Cutler Report)
2009: Australia’s Digital Economy, Future Directions (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy)
2009: Victorian Parliament Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (EDIC) report (Government’s response
2010)
Government 2.0 Taskforce (2009), “Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0” (December 2009)
2009: New Zealand (draft) Government Open Access Licensing Framework (NZGOAL); UK Power of Information report
2009 – 2010: Freedom of Information/Right to Information reforms – State and Federal legislation
2010: Government response to Government 2.0 Taskforce report, accepting key recommendations and stating that CC BY
should be the default licence for PSI; Declaration of Open Government
2011: Office of the Information Commissioner’s Principles on Open PSI; Attorney General’s IP Principles
2012 – Attorney General’s IP Manual and Guidelines on Licensing Public Sector Information for Australian Government
Agencies
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Putting Innovation centre-stage
Information flow is a central part of the innovation
agenda
The value of information/content is in its use/re-use
Venturous Australia (2008)
•Australia should establish a National Information
Strategy to optimise the flow of information in the
Australian economy. The fundamental aim of a National
Information Strategy should be to:
•maximise the flow of government generated
information, research, and content for the
benefit of users (including private sector resellers of
information).
•A specific strategy for ensuring the scientific
knowledge produced in Australia is placed in
machine searchable repositories be developed and
implemented using public funding agencies and universities
as drivers.
•Information, research and content funded by
Australian governments – including national
collections – should be made freely available over
the internet as part of the global public commons,
to the maximum extent possible.
Open gate by chelmsfordblue (Nick)
Venturous Australia (2008)
Recommendation 7.8
Australian governments should
adopt international standards
of open publishing as far as
possible. Material released for
public information by
Australian governments should
be released under a creative
commons licence.
OECD PSI Recommendation (2008)
 the “Openness” principle states:
 “Maximising the availability of public sector information for use and re-use
based upon presumption of openness as the default rule to facilitate
access and re-use. Developing a regime of access principles or assuming
openness in public sector information as a default rule wherever possible
no matter what the model of funding is for the development and
maintenance of the information. Defining grounds of refusal or limitations,
such as for protection of national security interests, personal privacy,
preservation of private interests for example where protected by copyright,
or the application of national access legislation and rules.”
 the “Access and transparent conditions for re-use” principle states:
 “Encouraging broad non-discriminatory competitive access and conditions
for re-use of public sector information, eliminating exclusive arrangements,
and removing unnecessary restrictions on the ways in which it can be
accessed, used, re-used, combined or shared, so that in principle all
accessible information would be open to re-use by all. Improving
access to information over the Internet and in electronic form. Making
available and developing automated on-line licensing systems covering reuse in those cases where licensing is applied, taking into account the
copyright principle below.”
Victorian Parliament’s
Economic Development
and Infrastructure
Committee (EDIC)
Report, Improving Access
to Victorian Public Sector
Information and Data
(2009)
Gov 2.0 Taskforce – “Engage:
getting on with Government 2.0”
December 2009; http://gov2.net.au
Central recommendation: A declaration of open government by the
Australian Government
Recommendation 6: Make public sector information open,
accessible and reusable [chapter 5, p 58]
6.1 By default, Public Sector Information (PSI) should be:






free
based on open standards
easily discoverable
understandable
machine-readable
freely reusable and transformable.
6.2 PSI should be released as early as practicable and regularly updated to
ensure its currency is maintained.
6.3 Consistent with the need for free and open reuse and adaptation, PSI
released should be licensed under the Creative Commons BY
standard as the default.
Government’s response
to Gov 2.0 Taskforce report (May 2010)
 Generally accepted Gov 2.0 Taskforce’s
recommendations (12 out of 13)
 agreed in principle to Recommendation 6, including:

6.3 Consistent with the need for free and open reuse and
adaptation, PSI released should be licensed under the
Creative Commons BY standard as the default.
 Government’s response was released under a Creative
Commons Attribution (CC BY) 2.5 Australia licence
 The Government response is available at
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/govresponse20rep
ort/index.html
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Commonwealth Government’s
Statement of IP Principles (2010)
 11.(b) Consistent with the need for free and open re-use and adaptation,
public sector information should be licensed by agencies under the
Creative Commons BY standard as the default.
 An agency’s starting position when determining how to license its
public sector information should be to consider Creative Commons
licences (http://creativecommons.org.au/) or other open content
licences.
 Agencies should license their public sector information under a
Creative Commons licence or other open content licence following a
process of due diligence and on a case-by-case basis.
 Before releasing public sector information, for which the
Commonwealth is not the sole copyright owner, under a Creative
Commons BY standard or another open content licence, an agency may
need to negotiate with any other copyright owners of the material.
Principles on open public sector
information (OAIC, 2011)
Principle 1: Open access to information - a default position
 Information held by Australian Government agencies is a valuable national
resource. If there is no legal need to protect the information it should be open
to public access. Information publication enhances public access. Agencies
should use information technology to disseminate public sector information,
applying a presumption of openness and adopting a proactive publication
stance.
Principle 6: Clear reuse rights
 The economic and social value of public sector information is enhanced when
it is made available for reuse on open licensing terms. The Guidelines on
Licensing Public Sector Information for Australian Government Agencies
require agencies to decide licensing conditions when publishing information
online. The default condition should be the Creative Commons BY
standard, as recommended in the Intellectual Property Principles for
Australian Government Agencies, that apply to agencies subject to the Financial
and Management Accountability Act 1997.
 http://oaic.gov.au/publications/agency_resources/principles_on_psi_short.htm
l
Australian Government IP Manual and
Guidelines on Licensing PSI (2012)
 In May 2012 the Australian Government (Attorney General’s
Department) released two documents which implement the
Government’s Statement of Intellectual Property Principles for
Australian Government Agencies:
 Guidelines on Licensing Public Sector Information for Australian
Government Agencies
 Australian Government Intellectual Property Manual (“IP
Manual”)
 IP Manual (Chapter 9, “Sharing and Granting Public Access to IP”)
makes it clear that PSI should be released free of charge under a CC BY
Australian licence by default.
 Refers to our CC and Government webpage for more detailed
information
 Available at:
http://www.ag.gov.au/Intellectualproperty/Pages/IntellectualPropertyMan
ual.aspx
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
“Visitors to this website
agree to grant a nonexclusive, irrevocable,
royalty-free license to the
rest of the world for their
submissions to
Whitehouse.gov under the
Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 License.”
World Bank – New OA Policy
 “For work carried out by Bank staff, the policy applies to
manuscripts and all accompanying data sets (a) that result
from research, analysis, economic and sector work, or
development practice; (b) that have undergone peer review
or have been otherwise vetted and approved for release to
the public; and (c) for which internal approval for release is
given on or after July 1, 2012.
…
 Requires that manuscripts published through the Bank, be
both free to access online through the Bank’s Open
Knowledge Repository and free of restrictions on their use
(libre OA) from the time of deposition of the content.
These manuscripts shall be published under the CC BY
license.”
World Bank – New OA Policy
 Effective 1 July 2012
 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/04/16200740/worldbank-open-access-policy-formal-publications
 all research outputs published by the Bank be licensed
under CC BY as a default.
 For work created by Bank staff, the policy covers
manuscripts and all accompanying data sets.
 These OA publications will be made available through
the Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Advantages of CC in the public
sector
 the CC licences mirror the fundamental purpose for
recognising copyright in government materials: integrity
and identification of original source (provenance)
 support government’s open access policy objectives
 avoid financial and technical lock-up of taxpayerfunded materials
 contribute to the “pool” of publicly funded content
available for innovative reuse – value adding
commercial applications
 identification of source/version etc promotes increased
user confidence
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Anne Fitzgerald, Neale Hooper & Cheryl Foong,
CC & Government Guide: Using Creative Commons
3.0 Australia Licences on Government Copyright
Materials
<http://eprints.qut.edu.au/38364/>
<http://creativecommons.org.au/sectors/government>
For further information see:
http://creativecommons.org.au
http://www.aupsi.org
http://www.oaklaw.qut.edu.au
© Anne Fitzgerald 2012. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.