52,642 research outputs found
Crown Copyright
No full textCopyright protects much of the creative, cultural, educational, scientific and informational material generated by federal, State/Territory and local governments and their constituent departments and agencies. Governments at all levels develop, manage and distribute a vast array of materials in the form of documents, reports, websites, datasets and databases on CD or DVD and files that can be downloaded from a website. \ud
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Under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), with few exceptions government copyright is treated the same as copyright owned by non-government parties insofar as the range of protected materials and the exclusive proprietary rights attaching to them are concerned. However, the rationale for recognizing copyright in public sector materials and vesting ownership of copyright in governments is fundamentally different to the main rationales underpinning copyright generally. The central justification for recognizing Crown copyright is to ensure that government documents and materials created for public administrative purposes are disseminated in an accurate and reliable form. Consequently, the exclusive rights held by governments as copyright owners must be exercised in a manner consistent with the rationale for conferring copyright ownership on them. Since Crown copyright exists primarily to ensure that documents and materials produced for use in the conduct of government are circulated in an accurate and reliable form, governments should exercise their exclusive rights to ensure that their copyright materials are made available for access and reuse, in accordance with any laws and policies relating to access to public sector materials. While copyright law vests copyright owners with extensive bundles of exclusive rights which can be exercised to prevent others making use of the copyright material, in the case of Crown copyright materials these rights should rarely be asserted by government to deviate from the general rule that Crown copyright materials will be available for “full and free reproduction” by the community at large
Canada’s Crown Copyright: Outdated and unnecessary
No full textThis article originally appeared in the October 2018 issue of Open Shelf magazine. Open Shelf is the official magazine of the Ontario Library Association, published for members and the larger community as a continuing education service to provide information about trends and issues affecting the association as well as libraries all across Ontario and beyond.
http://open-shelf.ca/181002-canadas-crown-copyright-outdated-and-unnecessary/
http://open-shelf.ca/181002-le-droit-dauteur-de-la-couronne-au-canada-une-disposition-desuete-et-inutile
RoMEO Studies 4: An analysis of Journal publishers' Copyright Agreements
No full textThis article is the fourth in a series of six emanating from the UK JISC-funded RoMEO Project (Rights Metadata for Open archiving). It describes an analysis of 80 scholarly journal publishers’ copyright agreements with a particular view to their effect on author self-archiving. 90% of agreements asked for copyright transfer and 69% asked for it prior to refereeing the paper. 75% asked authors to warrant that their work had not been previously published although only two explicitly stated that they viewed self-archiving as prior publication. 28.5% of agreements provided authors with no usage rights over their own paper. Although 42.5% allowed self-archiving in some format, there was no consensus on the conditions under which self-archiving could take place. The article concludes that author-publisher copyright agreements should be reconsidered by a working party representing the needs of both partie
The vanishing author in computer-generated works: a critical analysis of recent Australian case law
No full textAbstract
The use of software is ubiquitous in the creation of many copyright works, yet the requirement in copyright law that every work have a human author who engages in independent intellectual effort means that its use may prevent copyright subsistence. Several recent Australian cases have refocused attention on authorship as an essential criterion of copyright subsistence, and these cases suggest that much computer-produced output may be authorless and thus lack copyright protection. This article, the first in a two-part series, analyses how each case deals with the question of authorship of computer-produced works and why the use of software diminishes copyright protection for a significant number of computer-generated works. The article critiques the application of conventional notions of human authorship developed in the pre-computer age to modern productions and suggests alternative approaches to authorship that satisfy both the major objectives of copyright policy and the need to adapt to the computer age. The article argues that, without a broader judicial approach to authorship of computer-generated works, Parliament must remedy the lacuna in protection for these ‘authorless’ works. Possible solutions for reform are suggested. In a forthcoming article, the author comprehensively examines those reform proposals
Canadian Crown Copyright Conundrum
No full textDespite Government of Canada commitments to Open Government initiatives, Section 12 of the Copyright Act specifies that any work prepared or published by the Canadian government is subject to crown copyright. This means that substantial reproduction of government information beyond fair dealing and stated terms of use requires permission. In addition, and according to the terms of use found on Government of Canada web sites, it is unclear if fair dealing is an option when the use is commercial in nature
Crown copyright: More than just an outdated provision
No full textPresentation at ABC Copyright 2019. Conference program abstract: Section 12 of the Copyright Act is at odds with the aims of Open Government and many government works have become inaccessible, or even been lost due to Crown copyright chill. This session will report on recent advocacy work to persuade Canada's federal government to update an antiquated and undemocratic copyright provision
Met Office Framework Document 2007
No full textMet Office Framework Document 2007Previously curated at: http://cedadocs.ceda.ac.uk/272/
This work was part of a collaboration.
The publish date on this item was its original published date.
This item was previously associated with content (as an official url) at: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/legal/framework.pdf.
Main files in this record:
framework.pdf
Item originally deposited with Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) document repository by Ms Belinda Robinson. Transferred to CEDA document repository community on Zenodo on 2022-11-2
Crown use of copyright material
No full textThis article examines the legal position of government in its use of copyright material it receives or deals with in the course of its work. The nature, scope and operation of the Crown use provisions in the Australian Copyright Act 1968, the extent to which licences may be implied to government to reproduce or publish copyright material it receives, and the breadth of other statutory rights held by government and their relationship to the Crown use provisions of the Copyright Act, are discussed in detail in the article. In particular, the author examines arguments for construing the Crown use provisions to complement, rather than override, the special defences to infringement such as s 40 (fair dealing for research or study) which users of copyright material may rely on generally under the Copyright Act. The author concludes that there are good reasons in law and policy for construing the Crown use provisions to complement these special defences. The author also discusses modern demands on government for the management of information brought about by increased engagement with the community online and the internal transfer of agency information. He concludes that the High Court decision in Copyright Agency Limited v New South Wales and the changing technology in the way we communicate suggest a need for an express special defence permitting certain public uses of copyright material deposited or registered in accordance with statutory obligations under State or federal law, outside the operation of the Crown use provisions
Copyright and Creativity: Authors and Photographers
No full textThe history of the occupations “author” and “photographer” provides an insightful perspective on copyright and creativity. The concept of the romantic author, associated with personal creative genius, gained prominence in the eighteenth century. However, in the U.S. in 1900 only about three thousand persons professed their occupation to be “author.” Self-professed “photographers” were then about ten times as numerous as authors. Being a photographer was associated with manufacturing and depended only on mastering technical skills and making a living. Being an author, in contrast, was an elite status associated with science and literature. Across the twentieth century, the number of writers and authors grew much more rapidly than the number of photographers. The relative success of writers and authors in creating jobs seems to have depended not on differences in copyright or possibilities for self- production, but on greater occupational innovation. Creativity in organizing daily work is an important form of creativity.occupations, authors, photographers, copyright law, economic history
The nonsense of copyright in libraries : digital information and the right to copy
No full textThe notion of copyright is deeply entrenched in the psyche of librarians, who remain one of the few groups who consistently support or uphold it. Given the growth of digital information and consequential change in the behaviour of information creators and users the paper posits that copyright administration in libraries has become a cumbersome burden whose “time has come”. Changes in information provision by libraries towards delivering more digital information have ironically highlighted the paradox libraries face between providing the best possible service and upholding copyright. The notion that there exists in the digital environment a “right to copy” is put forward. Copyright is legally complicated, controversial, subject to a number of misunderstandings and generally not fully understood even by the librarians whose daily tasks include administering it. To better understand the current status of copyright and its impact on libraries the notion of copyright is briefly outlined, along with what exactly copyright is, its historical roots and its suitability in the current environment. In examining the legislation the paper critiques its aims and how it fails in these; compares arguments in favour and against its retention, investigates how it serves to restrict creativity rather than encourage it and in closing suggests why libraries should abandon the struggle to uphold copyright. Examples from New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK are used to highlight inconsistencies that support the argument that copyright in the digital environment is a nonsense that no longer works
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