Editors --- "Government and Creative Commons" [2007] SydUPLawBk 38; in Fitzgerald, Brian; Coates, Jessica and Lewis, Suzanne (eds), "Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons" (Sydney University Press, 2007) 67

Government and Creative Commons

The Government’s Role in Supporting Creative Innovation Why Government and Public Institutions need to understand Open Content Licensing

LINDA LAVARCH MLA, PROFESSOR STUART CUNNINGHAM, DR TERRY CUTLER, DR ANNE FITZGERALD, NEALE HOOPER AND TOM COCHRANE

The Government’s Role in Supporting Creative Innovation We move from the micro back out to the macro in our next section, which will feature the Queensland environment more broadly in the area of innovation, where the operation of a Creative Commons licensing regime will have real meaning in terms of the operation of the Queensland economy and society. The conference programme indicated that the speaker on this topic would be the Minister for State Development and Innovation, Tony McGrady. Unfortunately, the Minister was called away on short notice. His Parliamentary Secretary, Assistant Minister Linda Lavarch MLA, therefore spoke on the Minister’s behalf. [After the conference, Linda Lavarch was appointed Attorney General for Queensland.] Professor The Hon Michael Lavarch (Dean, QUT Faculty of Law)

Why Government and Private Institutions need to understand Open Content Licensing This presentation focuses on the role Creative Commons and Open Content Licensing can play in copyright management within government or the public sector more broadly. The Chair was Professor Stuart Cunningham, then Acting Dean of the Creative Industries Faculty. Since the conference Stuart has become Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, which funds a number of projects aimed at furthering research and education on open content licensing in Australia, including the Creative Commons Clinic, Creative Commons and Open Content Licensing and Digital Liberty projects. The members of the panel who provide papers here include Dr Terry Cutler, who looks at the public policy issues surrounding open content licensing; Dr Anne Fitzgerald, who discusses the Copyright Law Review Committee’s review of Crown Copyright under Australian law; Neale Hooper, who discusses open content licensing options for governments; and Tom Cochrane, who closes with a discussion of the importance of open content licensing to public institutions and universities. Professor Brian Fitzgerald (Head, QUT Law School)