By Sean Waterman, Head of Intellectual Property,
Earlier this year I taught a short course on Crown copyright that focused on how it pertains to the UK. Shortly afterwards I received an email from a client who attended the course asking about Crown Copyright in Commonwealth countries. They had numerous works of varying ages in their collections from Commonwealth countries including Australia and New Zealand that were potentially Crown Copyright. Understanding the scope of works protected by Crown Copyright and the duration of Crown Copyright protection was essential for them in recording the copyright status of the works and to understand how the works might be used by them and others.
This prompted me to look at Crown Copyright in Australia and New Zealand for how Crown Copyright works are defined and the duration of Crown Copyright for each country.
The UK’s Copyright Act 1911 established an imperial copyright system as the Act was applied throughout the British Empire including independent countries like Australia and New Zealand. The influence of the UK’s 1911 and 1956 Copyright Acts remain relevant today in Australia and New Zealand.
What works qualify as Crown Copyright
The Australian Copyright Act 1968 and the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994 reflect the UK’s Copyright Act of 1956 in what works qualify as Crown Copyright. As well as works produced by employees of the Crown, Crown Copyright also applies works made under the direction or control of the Crown. In Australia Crown Copyright also applies works first published in Australia by or under the direction or control of the national Australian Government or the Government of an Australian state.
In 2001 New Zealand amended its copyright act so crown copyright is not applicable for:
- Parliamentary Bills
- Acts of Parliament
- Regulations
- Bylaws
- Parliamentary debates
- Select committee reports
- Court and tribunal judgments
- Reports of Royal Commissions, commissions of inquiry, ministerial inquiries, or statutory inquiries.
Since the implementation of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 in the UK, Crown Copyright is limited to works made by officers or servants of the Crown in the course of their duties. This marked a significant reduction in the scope of works that qualify as Crown Copyright in the Copyright Act 1956. The Act also introduced Parliamentary Copyright for works made by the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Duration of Crown Copyright
The duration of Crown copyright in the UK is complicated as it depends whether the work was produced before 1st August 1989, when and whether the work was published and the category of copyright work. For published Literary Dramatic and Artistic works produced from 1st August 1989 Crown Copyright lasts for 50 years after publication, for unpublished works the term is 125 years. Crown copyright films and sound recordings are afforded the same duration for copyright as non-Crown copyright works. Some works produced by government owned limited companies (such as Ordinance Survey Ltd) as part of their public task are ‘Crown Owned’ rather than Crown Copyright and the duration of copyright is the standard term for non-Crown copyright works.
In Australia calculating the duration of Crown copyright is much simpler. Crown Copyright for published literary, dramatic or musical works last for 50 years after the year of publication. For artistic works, including photographs, and unpublished literary, dramatic, musical works Crown copyright lasts for 50 years after the year it was made.
New Zealand’s duration for Crown Copyright is also simpler than in the UK. Typographical arrangements are protected for 25 years after first publication and all other works whether published or unpublished are protected for 100 years after the work was made. There are however exceptions for Crown Entities and State-Owned Enterprises where copyright duration is the same as for non-crown copyright works.
Understanding the scope of what works are Crown Copyright and the duration of the term of copyright protection is important for museums, libraries and archives who wish to use or permit others to use Crown Copyright works in their collections.
Sean will be leading Naomi Korn Associates’ next running of our intermediate level Crown and Parliamentary Copyright course, on 18 November 1-4:30pm, worth 3 CPD Points. This explores how different rules apply to Crown and Parliamentary copyright works and is perfect for anyone involved in the acquisition, collections management, creation, commissioning, use and sharing of Crown and or Parliamentary copyright works. Book now via the link above or contact our Training Manager at info@naomikorn.com.
Each of our intermediate courses can be taken as an individual course or as part of our Intermediate Certificate (available in Copyright and in Data Protection). For further information, please see our ‘Certification and Accreditation’ page. For a full description of all courses, please see ‘Our Courses’ page. For a full public courses timetable, please go to our ‘Public Training’ page. If you have any queries or would like to get in touch, please reach out to our Training Manager at info@naomikorn.com.