Default copyright position of departmental web documents

Mark R. Diamond made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Education

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The request was successful.

Mark R. Diamond

The FOI Coördinator
Schools, Youth, Child Care and Corporate Legal Branch
Location Code: C50MA10 - LEGAL
GPO BOX 9880
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Dear FOI Coördinator,

Default copyright position on departmental web documents
-----------------------------------------------------------

I request access to any document (i.e., to any single document, not all such documents) showing whether the the Department of Education has a "default" position with regard to the licensing of material on the departmental website. What I'm really wanting to know is whether a normal user of the Department of Education website can make a presumption that the material is licensed under the kind of open-government terms described on the Attorney General's Department at http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection...

For instance, on the page
http://docs.education.gov.au/documents/g...
there is a spreadsheet that can be downloaded by a user. There is no licensing statement in the spreadsheet. Can a user presume that the spreadsheet is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s...) licence? And, to get to the heart of my request, what document in the department shows that the presumption would be correct? Or, since most documents don't have any licensing statement, must a user make a special enquiry regarding each one.

Please note I have no particular interest in the spreadsheet I mentioned above; I mean it only as an example.

Please treat this as a request for administrative access. If for some reason the request cannot be dealt with in that way, please treat it as a formal application under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours faithfully,

Mark R. Diamond

Education - FOI, Department of Education

2 Attachments

For Official Use Only

Dear Mr Diamond

 

Thank you for your email, below, requesting administrative access to
documents showing the department’s position with respect to the licensing
of intellectual property material published on its website.

 

Please find the following Department of Education policy documents
attached, which contain the information requested:

 

·        Department of Education Intellectual Property Management Policy;
and

·        Factsheet – Application of Creative Commons Attribution Licence
to Public Sector Information.

 

Kind regards

 

Alexandra Brown

Senior Government Lawyer

Schools, Youth, Child Care, and Corporate Legal Branch

Australian Government Department of Education

 

Opportunity through learning

 

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-----Original Message-----

From: Mark R. Diamond
[[1]mailto:[FOI #785 email]]

Sent: Sunday, 26 October 2014 1:56 PM

To: Education - FOI

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Default copyright position of
departmental web documents

 

The FOI Coördinator

Schools, Youth, Child Care and Corporate Legal Branch Location Code:
C50MA10 - LEGAL GPO  BOX  9880 CANBERRA  ACT  2601

 

Dear FOI Coördinator,

 

Default copyright position on departmental web documents

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

I request access to any document (i.e., to any single document, not all
such documents) showing whether the the Department of Education has a
"default" position with regard to the licensing of material on the
departmental website. What I'm really wanting to know is whether a normal
user of the Department of Education website can make a presumption that
the material is licensed under the kind of open-government terms described
on the Attorney General's Department at
[2]http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection...

 

For instance, on the page

[3]http://docs.education.gov.au/documents/g...

there is a spreadsheet that can be downloaded by a user. There is no
licensing statement in the spreadsheet. Can a user presume that the
spreadsheet is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution
([4]http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s...) licence? And, to
get to the heart of my request, what document in the department shows that
the presumption would be correct? Or, since most documents don't have any
licensing statement, must a user make a special enquiry regarding each
one.

 

Please note I have no particular interest in the spreadsheet I mentioned
above; I mean it only as an example.

 

Please treat this as a request for administrative access. If for some
reason the request cannot be dealt with in that way, please treat it as a
formal application under the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Mark R. Diamond

 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #785 email]
2. http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection...
3. http://docs.education.gov.au/documents/g...
4. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s...
5. mailto:[FOI #785 email]
6. mailto:[Department of Education request email]
7. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
8. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
9. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

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Mark R. Diamond

The FOI Coördinator
Schools, Youth, Child Care and Corporate Legal Branch
Location Code: C50MA10 - LEGAL
GPO BOX 9880
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Dear FOI Coördinator,

Default copyright position on departmental web documents
---------------------------------------------------

Thank you very much for the documents that you sent me regarding copyright. I have not yet read them thoroughly enough to know whether I can assume something about the copyright status of documents on the Department's website, or whether the documents are simply guidance for the Department staff! In any case, if I have any further questions I will contact you again.

Thanks again,

Yours faithfully,
Mark R. Diamond