Many Australian local, state or territory and federal government agencies are already using CC to facilitate productive reuse of public sector information (PSI) such as laws, regulations, statistics, reports, resources and data sets. Opening up government copyright in this way creates benefits for governments and the public.
Potential benefits for Australian government agency using CC licences include:
- Increasing transparency and accountability: By using CC licenses, governments make it easier for citizens to share, reuse and remix government content. This can increase teh understanding of this content while helping to promote transparency and accountability in government operations. This can help build trust between governments and the public.
- Stimulating innovation and economic growth: CC licenses can help to stimulate innovation and economic growth by making it easier for businesses, entrepreneurs, startups and other innovators to access and use government data and other resources. This can lead to the development of new products and services, new ideas generation, the creation of jobs and other positive economic outcomes.
- Promoting civic engagement and participation: CC licenses can help to promote civic engagement and participation by making it easier for the public to share and discuss government information and resources and participate in government decision-making processes. It can also support research and inform public policy.
- Supporting Open Government and “the commons”: By licensing your PSI under CC governments are contributing to the Open Government movement. Licensing PSI helps to build “the commons” – a rich body of material freely available for legal sharing, reuse and remixing by anyone.
If you are an Australian government agency interested in CC you can:
- Learn more about CC: We have information about finding and reusing CC materials, as well as information about the licences and deciding which is right for you.
- Licence your PSI: You can add a CC licence to your PSI such as such as reports and other documents, statues and regulations and statistics and data. If you aren’t sure which licence is right for you the interactive CC Chooser can help you decide. If you are new to licensing material using CC we recommend getting farmiliar with the considerations for licensors.
- Search for CC-licensed content: CC-licensed content you can share, reuse and remix can be found all over the internet. Finding CC-licensed materials has helpful information on how to find licensed content.
- Let us know about your PSI: Share your CC experience on social media using the #CCinAU hashtag when you post on social media or by contacting us. We might even feature it!