If the department or agency is part of a Commonwealth, State or Territory government it can rely on the special exception for copying by the government, if it is copying for the services of the government. If you own copyright in the map and you are a member of the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), you will be eligible to receive a payment from CAL for use of your map by the government. For more information, see our information sheet Governments (Commonwealth, State and Territory). The government copying exception does not apply to local governments; they need to obtain your permission.

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Yes, if it is for the purposes of the government. It is likely that this use will involve both reproduction and communication of the material. The reproduction of the text and graphics will be covered by the declaration of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) as the collecting society for government copies. It will, however, be necessary to notify each relevant copyright owner in relation to the communication, and they may require remuneration.

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Yes, if the copying is for the services of government. Copying any type of text is covered by the declared collecting society, Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), therefore you will not need to notify the copyright owner directly. Records may need to be kept if your department or agency is participating in a sample survey conducted by CAL to determine the extent and nature of copying.

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The contract between the government and the person commissioned to write the report may state which party owns the copyright. If the agreement does not deal with ownership, the government will own the copyright on the basis that the report was written under the direction or control of, or first published by, the government.

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You should first check whether your government has a policy about the wording of copyright notices on government material. For example, see the requirements for copyright notices on Commonwealth publications at www.ag.gov.au/cca (click on “General Information”, then on “Advice on copyright notices for Commonwealth agencies”).

Just as book publishers put copyright notices on their books, people who publish on the web normally have a statement about copyright on their websites. There could be an easily recognisable link to it from each page on the site. There are no special rules about how the statement should be worded, but (unless your government has a statement it requires you to use) it is a good idea for the statement to include the following:

• the copyright symbol (©) and the name, or names, of the copyright owner(s) of material on the site (this will generally be the name of the relevant government);

• the year of first publication (for websites, often in the form 2001-2007, to indicate that the material has been updated over a period of time)

• information about what visitors to the site may or may not do with material on the site (for example a statement giving visitors permission to print material for personal use, or to distribute it for a non-commercial purpose); and

• contact details (preferably including an email address) to get a copyright clearance for any of the material on the site.

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Generally, the issue of copyright ownership should be addressed in the funding agreement.

If there is no specific statement on this point in the agreement between the government and the creator, the answer depends on whether the provision of funding amounts to the government “directing or controlling” the creation of the material. This, in turn, depends on how the funding is provided. One-off grants to incorporated bodies or communities to assist with things such as the setting up of exhibitions and the showing of films, or grants which are part of ongoing support for an organisation's general purposes, are unlikely to constitute control or direction. Where the funding is project-specific, with a greater degree of departmental involvement in the design of the project and its administration, and where further funding depends on satisfactory progress of the project, the government is more likely to own copyright.

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