Government Licences

Government Statutory Licence

A licence taken from the Copyright Act 1968 for eligible Australian government departments and agencies to copy and share third party text, images and print music for the services of the Crown. The licence is sometimes referred to as ‘section 183’. Copyright Agency is appointed by the Australian Government to administer this licence scheme.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

With the Government Statutory Licence, you can:

• Copy and share content across departments and teams
• Use material in reports, briefings and policy documents
• Distribute Copyright Agency member content internally via email, intranet or other systems
• Include content in presentations and communications
• Physically or digitally copy unlimited content from any source in the world for the services of the Crown

The Government Statutory Licence does not cover making content available externally (for example, uploading content to a public facing website or emailing copies to external parties).

Additionally, the licence does not cover copying and sharing for educational purposes by government educational institutions (refer to the Statutory Education Licence for these activities instead).

WHO IT’S FOR

• Commonwealth, State and Territory government departments and agencies.
• Any other bodies that are ‘part of the Crown’

Other people and entities that have written authorisation from a government body to copy and share for government purposes. The Government Statutory Licence is not available to Local Governments bodies (e.g councils) (refer to the Business licence for these bodies instead).

WHY IT MATTERS

Government organisations rely on accurate, timely information — but using content without permission can create legal and reputational risk.

The Government Statutory Licence:

• Provides consistent, across the board coverage
• Reduces copyright infringement and compliance risk
• Removes the need to seek permission for each use
• Supports efficient information sharing across departments
• Licence fees are distributed by Copyright Agency to rights holder and creators, ensuring a strong creative economy

HOW IT WORKS

• Copyright Agency has agreements in place with the Commonwealth in addition to each State and Territory Government. These agreements provide most departments and agencies with access to the licence scheme.
• If the licence is in place for your department or agency, your staff can copy and share content for the purposes of the Crown.
• Fees are negotiated at an agreement level and paid annually to Copyright Agency.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

Under the Licence you can copy and share a wide range of text and image content from physical and digital sources, including:

• Newspaper, journal and magazine articles
• Reports, research and policy material
• Website content
• Excerpts from books and other published materials
• Images, artworks, graphs and diagrams
• Print Music

Common use cases

Government organisations may use the Government Statutory Licence for:

• Policy development and research
• Ministerial and executive briefings
• Internal communications and updates
• Cross-department information sharing

How do survey plans fit in?

In addition to the Government Statutory Licence, Copyright Agency has separate licence agreements in place with all State and Territory governments which cover the sales of survey plans.

Copyright Agency distributes royalties collected via this licence scheme to surveyor members.

Other types of works

Copyright Agency works in the field of text and images. For enquiries into the use of TV and Radio Broadcast, contact Screenrights. For enquiries into the use of sound recordings and music, contact APRA AMCOS and PPCA.