IP: KCE

The report of the Victorian Parliament’s Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (EDIC) on the Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data was tabled in Parliament on 24 June 2009 (see the report).

The Committee was tasked with inquiring into, considering and reporting to the Victorian Parliament on the potential application of open content and open source licensing models to Victorian Government information.

The Committee made a number of key findings, including that improved access to and utilisation of public sector information (PSI) may result in economic benefits for the Victorian Government through greater efficiency in the allocation of resources and more informed decision-making and policy development processes (Finding 2). It also found that PSI should be priced at no cost or marginal cost (Finding 19) and that access to and reuse of PSI will be best facilitated by applying standardised licences to the PSI in accordance with existing copyright provisions (Findings 8 and 9). Significantly, the Committee found that Creative Commons licences can be appropriately applied to around 85% of PSI (Finding 13), and that issuing attribution-only Creative Commons licences will assist in maintaining the integrity of Victorian Government PSI while ensuring that access and reuse opportunities are maximised (Finding 15).

In the Report, the Committee recommends that the Victorian Government release a public statement indicating that it endorses open access as the default position for the management of its PSI (Recommendation 1). The Committee also recommends that the Victorian Government develop a whole-of-government Information Management Framework (Recommendation 2) and that it adopt the Creative Commons licensing model as the default licensing system for the Information Management Framework (Recommendation 14) with a tailored suite of licences for restricted materials (Recommendation 15). Finally, the Committee recommends that the Victorian Government develop specific guidelines for the pricing of PSI, emphasising the provision of PSI at no cost or marginal cost (Recommendation 16).

The work of Professors Brian and Anne Fitzgerald and their research teams is extensively referenced in the report. Professor Brian Fitzgerald is quoted in relation to open innovation (on page 14) and open content licences (on page 68). Professor Anne Fitzgerald is quoted on page 67 in discussion of the complexities that may arise if copyright is simply removed from government information. They are quoted together (on pages 76 and 77) in relation to the application of Creative Commons licences to PSI.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald of QUT Law School has been appointed to the new Government 2.0 Taskforce, announced Monday 22 June 2009. The Terms of Reference for the Taskforce are that the Taskforce will advise and assist the Australian Government to:

• make government information more accessible and usable — to establish a pro-disclosure culture around non-sensitive public sector information;
• make government more consultative, participatory and transparent — to maximise the extent to which government utilises the views, knowledge and resources of the general community;
• build a culture of online innovation within Government — to ensure that government is receptive to the possibilities created by new collaborative technologies and uses them to advance its ambition to continually improve the way it operates;
• promote collaboration across agencies with respect to online and information initiatives — to ensure that efficiencies, innovations, knowledge and enthusiasm are shared on a platform of open standards; and
• identify and/or trial initiatives that may achieve or demonstrate how to accomplish the above objectives.

For more information, see the Government 2.0 Taskforce blog.

The Opening Access to Australia’s Archives meeting was held at Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, from 2-4pm on Thursday 28th May 2009, following the Copyright Future: Copyright Freedom conference.

The internet, digital recording devices and the ready availability of content production software have together drastically changed the creative landscape. As a result, linear models of knowledge and cultural production and commercialisation are rapidly being supplanted by more distributed, collaborative, user-generated and open networking models. Yet Australians wishing to participate in this new digital culture have great difficulty gaining access to quality content about their own culture and history that can be legally and safely used and re-used. This limits our ability to access the full benefits that could be provided by new technologies to the fields of education, the creative industries and business innovation.

As the recent Venturous Australia report prepared by Cutler & Company for the Review of the National Innovation System pointed out, Australia’s cultural and collecting institutions have the ability to fill this gap by opening access to material that is owned by the Australian people or has fallen into the public domain. Although a number of individual institutions are taking innovate steps to increase online access to their collections, strict copyright laws, lack of funding and little policy support from above has generally limited their ability to realise the full potential of this content.

This meeting, which had more than 30 attendees, aimed to facilitate discussion among Australian cultural sector representatives about opportunities to increase the public’s ability to access and reuse our national collections through coordinated policy, implementation and advocacy approaches.

The minutes of the meeting can be found here.

The major outcome of the meeting was a decision to hold a longer day-long symposium addressing the issues over the coming months.

Change Congress and Regulatory Transparency:
CHANGE v2: What changes Obama will need?

In this Public Lecture Professor Lawrence Lessig will talk about the Change Congress project that aims to persuade members of congress to rely for funding on citizen contributions rather than big donations from special interests. The organisation considers that funding by corporate special interests has caused members of congress to favour these interests, undermining the integrity of the legislative process and resulting in legislation that may harm the public interest.

The aims of Change Congress are consistent with Barack Obama’s goal to achieve a transparent political culture that restores public trust. Its success may be critical to Obama’s hopes for enlisting congressional support for ambitious reforms to solve domestic and political crisis.

The free public lecture will be hold on Friday 29 May 2009, at The Banco Court, Law Courts Complex, 304 George Street, Brisbane.

Photograph by Joi from Flickr, Licensed under CC (US) Attribution 2.0 Generic

This conference - Copyright Future: Copyright Freedom – will be held at Old Parliament House (OPH) in Canberra on Wednesday 27th May and Thursday 28th May 2009. The month of May in 2009 marks 40 years since the commencement of the Australian Copyright Act of 1968.

The conference will consider the history of copyright law with special focus on the excellent work of Benedict Atkinson on the True History of Australian Copyright Law (2007). It will also chart the path of copyright law since that time and give special focus to future possibilities. The conference will be opened by the Honourable Robert McClelland Attorney-General for the Commonwealth of Australia and our Keynote Speaker will be Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University Law School.

QUT has recently engaged in a new joint project on Patents with Open Access Research Institute CAMBIA, a non-profit entity established almost 20 years ago by award-winning molecular biologist Richard Jefferson. The collaboration is aimed at making the patent system easier to navigate across a range of areas, from paint to pharmaceuticals. At QUT, the effort will be led by deputy vice-chancellor (technology, information and learning support) Tom Cochrane and Professor Brian Fitzgerald, leader of the OAK Law project.

See the full report here

The Open Access and Research Conference was held on the 24th- 25th of September 2008 at Stamford Plaza in Brisbane. Senator the Honourable Kim Carr sent the opening message to the conference in a video address.

See the media response to Minister Kim Carr’s speech click here.
See full programme of OAR conference here.

See the conference delegates’ blogs here and here.

In June Professor Brian Fitzgerald was invited to present at the inaugural ARC Graeme Clark Outcomes Forum at Parliament House in Canberra.

He outlined the outcomes the Creative Commons Project within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation has had in the creative, public and education sectors.

Photograph by Norman Plant, courtesy of the Australian Research Council.

A new book ‘Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific’ edited by Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor Fuping Gao, Mr Damien O’Brien and Mr Sampsung Xiaoxiang Shi was launched by Hon Justice Douglas on 14 June 2008 at QUT in Brisbane.
Read his speech here

For further details click here.

In April, Professor Fitzgerald submitted four submissions to the National Review of the Innovation System across the various IP:KCE research projects: Review of the National Innovation System; What is Open Access?; Innovation Review Contracts e-Research; and, Submission Innovation Review Copyright.

Download:
Review of the National Innovation System35.pdf
What is Open Access.pdf
Innovation ReviewContractse-research.pdf
Submission Innovation Review Copyright.pdf