Projects/Queen's printer media

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The Queen's Printer (or King's Printer during the reign of a male monarch) is a position defined by statute to publish material on behalf of the government. The Queen's Printer in right of a jurisdiction holds the copyright for works published by the government of that jurisdiction.

Photographs of elected officials

After the completion of an election every elected legislator is photographed. These photographs are copyright by the Queen's printer for the respective jurisdiction. If the Queen's printer would release these photographs under a free license they would be readily available for use on biographies of Canadian politicians.

Stated positions

Canada

"©Members photographs. The House of Commons holds the copyright on official photographs of Members, including those reproduced in composite photographs. Reproduction of the images is for non-commercial use only and images must be credited as House of Commons, following receipt of written permission." See [1] at each separate picture. A comparable statement is used for members of the Senate.

Alberta

"The Legislative Assembly of Alberta supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of information from this site subject to the following restrictions:

The material may be downloaded, displayed, printed and reproduced for non-commercial use only. Any use for commercial purpose or financial gain requires the express written approval of the Speaker.
Material may not be altered or modified, except for length, or used in any form of undignified association.
Copies or reproductions of the material should acknowledge the source." [2]

British Columbia

"The user acknowledges that the copyright in all material contained herein is claimed by the Legislative Assembly and the Queen's Printer on behalf of, and rests with, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia. No person may reproduce the material contained herein by any means for financial gain, or other than personal use, without the express written consent of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly." [3]

Manitoba

"This material is owned by the Manitoba government and protected by copyright law. It may not be reproduced or redistributed without the prior written permission of the Province of Manitoba." [4]

New Brunswick

"Content herein may be reproduced for educational purposes, private study, research, reporting, or in order to prepare a newspaper summary, without charge or request for permission, provided due diligence is exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced and the reproduction is not represented as an official version." [5]

Newfoundland and Labrador

"The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is the owner of copyright in all information found on this Web site unless otherwise stated.

Where the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is the owner of copyright in information on this Web site, government hereby grants permission for the information of this web site to be used by the public and non-government organizations." [6]

Northwest Territories

"The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of information. You may download, display, print and reproduce material on this website for non-commercial use only. However, you are advised that the material in this website is protected by copyright, and that the Legislative Assembly asserts the right to have the material remain unaltered and to have the source acknowledged." [7]

Nova Scotia

Pages on the Nova Scotia website have "This page and all contents are Crown copyright © 2011, Province of Nova Scotia, all rights reserved," with varying year. I have not been able to find any generally applicable policy on this. It appears that establishing such policies is left to individual departments.

Nunavut

Ontario

"The Legislative Assembly of Ontario supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of information. You may download, display, print and reproduce material on this site for non-commercial use only. However, you are advised that the material in this Website is protected by copyright, and that the Legislative Assembly asserts the right to have the material remain unaltered and to have the source acknowledged." [8]

Prince Edward Island

"The user acknowledges that the copyright in all material contained herein is claimed by the Legislative Assembly on behalf of, and rests with, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Prince Edward Island. No person may reproduce the material contained herein by any means for financial gain, or for other than personal use, without the express written consent of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly." [9]

also

"Information on this site has been posted with the intent that it be readily available for personal and public non-commercial use and may be reproduced, in part or in whole and by any means, without charge or further permission from the Government of Prince Edward Island." [10]

Quebec

"All content posted by the National Assembly, that is,

texts
Assembly publications ...
images (including the Assembly’s logo)
videos and audio files
data

is the property of the State (the National Assembly). It may be reproduced free of charge provided

it is not used for commercial purposes
it is not modified
the medium of dissemination credits the National Assembly of Québec as its source

This permission is valid for documents prepared by the National Assembly and for documents prepared by

a government department or body
a third person that has transferred the copyright or granted a user licence to the State" [11]

Saskatchewan

"Materials on this website are owned by the Government of Saskatchewan and protected by Crown copyright.

Unless otherwise noted materials may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes. The materials must be reproduced accurately and the reproduction must not be represented as an official version. As a general rule, information materials may be used for non-profit and personal use. . . . Crown copyright should continue to be acknowledged in the following form:

Yukon

"Material on the Yukon Legislative Assembly web site may be printed, copied or reproduced for non-commercial purposes only. Reproductions must be accurate and must not be represented as an official version. Reproduction or redistribution for commercial purposes requires advance written permission from the Yukon Legislative Assembly.

Copyright must be acknowledged in the following form:

Success reached in other areas of the World

From the signpost "Russian president pushes for Creative Commons licencing: Further to his 29 April meeting with internet representatives, including Wikimedia (Signpost coverage), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has issued instructions to the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications to draft amendments to Russian legislation which will "give authors the right to make their works available on a free-licence basis to the public at large (along the lines of Creative Commons, GNU FDL)". According to a 2008 letter to a Wikimedian from Natalya Timakova, the President's Press Attache, Creative Commons licencing is not currently on the statutes of the Russian Federation. As a sidenote, since October 2008, materials from the President's website at http://www.kremlin.ru have been licenced under Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 licencing. Medvedev has given the Ministry until 1 August to act on his instructions." [14]

-UK Government has created the Open Government License, compatible with the CC-by. Wonder if the Canadians would be so nice as to use it here as well... Brian Barker 22:16, 27 April 2012 (EDT)