Crown copyright
copyright claim used by the governments of a number of Commonwealth realms
Crown copyright is a type of copyright protection. It subsists in works of the governments of some Commonwealth realms and provides special copyright rules for the Crown, i.e. government departments and (generally) state entities. Each Commonwealth realm has its own Crown copyright regulations. There are therefore no common regulations that apply to all or a number of those countries. There are some considerations being made in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand regarding the "reuse of Crown-copyrighted material, through new licences".
Crown copyright by country
Australia
The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) is the single Act mandating copyright policy for government and non-government works in Australia. Sections 176(2) and 177 of the Act provide that the Australian Government or a government of an Australian state or territory owns copyright in an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work:
made by or under the direction or control of that government, or
first published in Australia by or under the direction or control of that government.
Copyright in such copyright material subsists until 50 years after the calendar year in which the material is made (s. 180).
The public source identifies “Crown copyright” as copyright claim used by the governments of a number of Commonwealth realms. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Crown, copyright and claim.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Crown copyright”, the useful work is to connect “copyright claim used by the governments of a number of Commonwealth realms” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5189489. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1968.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Crown copyright”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Crown copyright primary sources, Crown copyright archive and Crown research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Crown copyright” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.