ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how open content licences–specifically, creative commons (CC) licences–can be used by governments as a simple and effective mechanism to support the reuse of their copyright-protected public sector information (PSI), particularly where materials are made available in digital form online or distributed on disk. While permitting a broad range of uses of PSI, government may often, justifiably, want to continue to be able to control the use of its material, even though that power may only rarely be exercised. PSI is produced at taxpayers' expense. The CC licensing model is inspired by the work of Richard Stallman, who developed the General Public Licence (GNU) for free software. The adoption of CC licences by all levels of government in the online environment will fuel the development of a vibrant global commons of PSI, the real value of which can only be realised when it is re-used for social, economic and cultural benefit.
