Government-owned Copyright
The Australian Commonwealth and State governments routinely own copyright in Australia. While this could be seen as being due to the concept of the Crown being traditionally paramount rather than the people, it is more influenced by the then British Commonwealth acting as a copyright policy-making body in the 1950s, which was the basis of the 1968 Copyright Act.
The Australian government does not infringe copyright if its actions (or those of an authorised person) are for the government. A "relevant collecting society" may sample government copies and charge the government.
The State governments follow different practices in regard to licensing, fees and waivers.
The Australian Attorney-General's Copyright Law Review Committee completed a large review of Crown Copyright in April 2005. In summary, the Committee recommended that the Crown be treated like any other employer (i.e., owner of material produced by its employees), and that for certain materials (legislation, government reports, commissions of inquiry reports) either copyright be removed, or a generous and generalised license be granted for re-use. As of early 2007, several governments appear to be considering the use of open licenses modelled along the lines of the Creative Commons model.
Copyrights owned by the Crown in Australia have different durations to publicly held copyrights, as below:
| Published literary, dramatic or musical works (includes published official records) | 50 years after the end of the year in which the work is first published |
| Unpublished literary, dramatic, musical works | Copyright subsists indefinitely |
| Artistic works | 50 years from the end of the year when made |
| Photographs taken before 1 May 1969 | 50 years from the end of the year when made |
| Photographs taken after 1 May 1969 | 50 years from end of year of first publication |
Read more about this topic: Australian Copyright Law