This information guide covers the use of Geoscience Australia's National Mapping printed maps, digital (computerised mapping) information and Geoscience Australia satellite data.
In general terms, copyright is the exclusive right given to an author by the Copyright Act 1968 (and amended in 1980 and 1984) to reproduce, publish, perform, broadcast and adapt a work.
Artistic works include diagrams, maps, charts or plans.
Geoscience Australia is the custodian of the copyright of maps and digital data products it produces on behalf of the Australian Government, ie., the Commonwealth. This custodianship has been devolved to Geoscience Australia by AusInfo, Department of Finance and Administration.
With reference to Geoscience Australia satellite data, under legal agreements, Geoscience Australia is responsible for protecting the copyright of these data sets on behalf of the satellite operators.
Geoscience Australia has a statutory responsibility to administer the Commonwealth Copyright and/or any satellite operators copyright conditions of Geoscience Australia's material and it's satellite products, respectively. Geoscience Australia does not give away or sell copyright. Rather, it grants a right - a licence - to use Geoscience Australia's material and it's satellite data as specified in any application to use these products.
Printed maps, digital (computerised mapping) data, and Geoscience Australia satellite data have broad applications in industry, academia and the government sectors. Geoscience Australia encourages the widest possible use of any material over which it administers copyright within the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 and the legal agreements of the satellite operators. We undertake to give prompt consideration to all requests for use of Geoscience Australia's copyright material and it's satellite data.
All requests are treated as strictly Commercial-in-Confidence.
No Geoscience Australia's material may be copied, traced, digitised, stored on a computer system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or translated into another language, until an application has been made and permission has been received.
Digitisation, ie., computerisation, of Geoscience Australia's hard copy products without prior written approval is a breach of the Copyright Act. Where Geoscience Australia does not have digital data available, written permission must be sought from Geoscience Australia prior to undertaking any digitising. A licence fee may be payable.
Purchasers of Geoscience Australia Satellite Data are entitled to modify and adapt the data to produce enhance data products. The reproduction, distribution and sale of enhanced data are governed by legal agreements with the satellite operators. In some cases it is restricted or may require specific notices to be attached and there are other cases where royalties may be payable. Geoscience Australia is responsible for the protection of copyright on behalf of the satellite operators, therefore the final determination of enhancement rests with Geoscience Australia. There may be cases that do not clearly fit into the definitions and therefore it is important that you seek clarification and approval from Geoscience Australia in your use of satellite data.
Please use the appropriate form attached below for your application to use Geoscience Australia's copyright material and/or Geoscience Australia Satellite Data.
To comply with the Copyright Act 1968 and the legal agreements with the satellite operators, any application requesting permission to copy, reproduce or digitise any Geoscience Australia's printed maps, digital data, and/or Geoscience Australia satellite data must contain the following information:
State the applicant's organisation and the position the applicant holds in that organisation.
Clearly identify the original map, aerial photograph, digital data set, Geoscience Australia satellite data or other material to which the applicant's copyright request refers.
State the applicant's intended use of the material, including a description of the proposed product or publication, and describe in detail the amount of the original Geoscience Australia's product or Geoscience Australia satellite product to be reproduced.
State the recommended retail price or fee, if applicable, for the product to be produced by the applicant.
State the intended number of copies of the applicant's product to be produced.
State the proportion of the Geoscience Australia's material or Geoscience Australia satellite data to be used in the applicant's product.
Describe the proposed scope of the use, sale and/or distribution of the applicant's product.
Where permission is granted to reproduce or copy material, such permission shall be extended only to the specific use described in the application.
It may not be extended to a third party.
Generally, Geoscience Australia's response to the application will require the applicant to agree to the following conditions before permission can be granted to reproduce Geoscience Australia's material:
An attribution or acknowledgment similar to the following example is included with the reproduction:
This map is Commonwealth Copyright © Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division [Year of publication]. All rights reserved. It has been reproduced with the permission of the Chief of Division, Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division, Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, Canberra, ACT. www.ga.gov.au
Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from Geoscience Australia. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Copyright Officer, Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division, Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, PO Box 378, Canberra, ACT, 2601, or to copyright@ga.gov.au
A shorter version may be acceptable where available space may be limited.
This map is Commonwealth Copyright © Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division. [Year of first production]. All rights reserved. www.ga.gov.au
Similar wording is to be adopted where products are to be derived from Geoscience Australia's material. The actual attribution will be specified on a case by case basis.
If the application is successful, Geoscience Australia will issue a licence to the applicant to reproduce the material as set out in their application.
Upon completion of the project using Geoscience Australia's material, one copy of the product is supplied free of charge to Geoscience Australia, marked Attention - Copyright Administration, Geoscience Australia. This copy is to allow monitoring of compliance by the applicant to Geoscience Australia's copyright conditions of agreement.
Where any Geoscience Australia's material is reproduced for public use or consumption, the quality of Geoscience Australia's reproductions must not be downgraded and must not compromise the quality of Geoscience Australia's original work. The reproduction does not need to be a direct reproduction of Geoscience Australia's material. Modifications such as colour variations, the inclusion of additional information or features and/or other value adding enhancements to suit the applicant's purpose during the production processes are acceptable.
The applicant may undertake reprints, new editions or updates of their work in which Geoscience Australia's material has been used. However, before doing so, they must ensure that Geoscience Australia is advised in writing and should agree to any appropriate conditions.
Should Geoscience Australia's material be used in any product to be used in any cost recovery situation or for any commercial gain, a royalty fee may be payable.
The Commonwealth holds copyright of all Geoscience Australia's Data products. Geoscience Australia does not sell its data, rather it grants a licence to use the data.
A licence agreement is a contract between the customer and Geoscience Australia. All Geoscience Australia's licence agreements are non-exclusive and non-transferable to use the data for non-commercial applications within the customer's organisation only.
The data, documentation, or any product derived from the data, either digital or hard copy, must not be sold, given away, traded, let, hired or otherwise dealt with. Should the customer wish to use the data commercially, a special licence for this purpose must be obtained from Geoscience Australia.
For information on applications for use of Geoscience Australias - National Mapping's digital data please see Section 2.
The conditions of use of Geoscience Australia satellite data will vary depending on the satellite data the applicant selects to use. Conditions are governed by legal agreements set by the satellite operators. These conditions of use are outlined in the Geoscience Australia End-User Licence Agreements that accompany each satellite product sold.
For information on applications for use of Geoscience Australia satellite data please see Section 2.
You may use any Landsat browse image contained in the Geoscience Australia Digital Catalogue to enhance your website, free of charge, provided you acknowledge Geoscience Australia as the source of the image with a link to the Geoscience Australia website at www.ga.gov.au.
Please note that Digital Catalogue imagery other than Landsat is covered by copyright and cannot be used without written authorisation from Geoscience Australia.
For usage of Landsat catalogue browse images for other forms of publishing, please contact Remote Sensing Client Services.
The Digital Catalogue contains thousands of colour images from the Landsat satellite. These three-band images are freely available as .jpg files for the web. These are uncorrected, sub-sampled or browse images of the Earth's surface and were acquired from a satellite travelling on a north-east to south-west path. Consequently, the top of the image is not due north, as with a map, but rotated about 12 degrees in an easterly direction.
Licence Agreements are available for each satellite data type.
A royalty is a fee paid to Geoscience Australia in respect of use of its mapping information, digital data or Geoscience Australia satellite data, for the production of commercial hard copy (eg. publications such as books, newspapers, brochures and posters) or digital products (eg. data on CD-ROMS or Internet). Royalties may also be payable for hard copy or digital products that are to be given away at no charge.
The following details will be taken into consideration when determining if a royalty is applicable:
Exemptions or waiving of royalties may be considered on a case by case basis. Where royalty fees are applicable a minimum fee of $54.00 will apply.
Use of 10% of printed material such as a map for educational purposes and non-business research does not attract a licence fee. Geoscience Australia considers A4 size of reproduction of maps at their original scale for educational purposes to be acceptable for copying.
Generally, Geoscience Australia does not apply royalty fees for education, thesis or in-house uses.
The applicant may have to pay where:
The use of Geoscience Australia satellite data in research, teaching and study will be considered on a case by case basis.
Geoscience Australia is the national agency for geoscience research and information. Our research and information contributes to enhanced economic, social and environmental benefits to the community - by providing input for decisions that impact upon resource use, management of the environment, and the safety and well-being of Australians.
The Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division within Geoscience Australia, formerly known as AUSLIG, was formed in 1987 by the amalgamation of the former Division of National Mapping and the Australian Survey Office.
The Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) was established as the Australian LANDSAT Station in 1979. ACRES is part of the Remote Sensing Program of the Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division within Geoscience Australia.
In general terms, copyright is the exclusive right given to an author by the Copyright Act 1968 (and amended in 1980 and 1984) to reproduce, publish, perform, broadcast and adapt a work.
Artistic works include diagrams, maps, charts or plans.
Geoscience Australia is the custodian of the copyright of the maps and data products it produces on behalf of the Commonwealth. Geoscience Australia does not own the copyright. This custodianship of Commonwealth Copyright of maps, digital data and other products has been devolved to Geoscience Australia from AusInfo, Department of Finance and Administration.
Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division product brand names include ACRES, GEODATA and NATMAP.
A printed map is a representation (or a model) of the real world using graphical symbols and lines plotted to scale on a known map projection.
Digital data is a representation of the real world which uses coordinates to define locations, and codes to define the features and phenomena which exist at those locations. Digital data encompasses map information in computer readable form.
Satellite data is also referred to as remote sensing data where remote sensing is the observation of an object from a distance. Examples are Aerial Photography and the use of satellites to observe the Earth. Satellite remote sensing involves gathering information about features on the Earth's surface from orbiting satellites. These satellites carry two types of sensor systems known as active and passive. A passive system generally consists of an array of small sensors or detectors which record (as digital numbers) the amount of electro-magnetic radiation reflected and/or emitted from the Earth's surface. A multispectral scanner is an example of a passive system. An active system propagates its own electro-magnetic radiation and measures (as digital numbers) the intensity of the return signal. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an example of an active system. The digital data acquired by the satellites is transmitted to ground stations and can be used to reconstitute an image of the Earth's surface not too dissimilar to an aerial photograph.
A licence fee may be defined as a fee payable by a recipient of an agency (Geoscience Australia) product for a licence to use a product for a specified purpose. The fee may be a composite of both licensing and service charges.
A royalty is the monetary consideration received by the owner of copyright in a work from a person for a licence to make copies of that work. A royalty is a fee paid in respect of commercial use of copyright data.
To comply with the Copyright Act and the satellite operators copyright conditions, all applications for use of material over which Geoscience Australia exercises copyright administration must be made in writing. A licence to use any Geoscience material and/or Geoscience Australia satellite data must be obtained before use. Use without a licence may result in legal action.
To apply for a licence please follow the steps below:
Download or print a copy of the appropriate application form:
Complete the Application form for a licence to use Geoscience Australia material and/or Geoscience Australia satellite data and mail, fax or e-mail the form to Geoscience Australia. Please use the contact details shown below.
Copyright Administration
Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division
Geoscience Australia
GPO Box 378
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Telephone: +61 2 6249 9814
Fax: +61 2 6249 9855
Free Call: 1800 800 173
email: copyright@ga.gov.au
Copyright Officer
Remote Sensing Client Services
Geoscience Australia
GPO BOX 378
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Telephone: +61 2 6249 9779
Fax: +61 2 6247 9938
Free Call: 1800 800 173
email: acres@ga.gov.au
Geoscience Australia will review and reply to your Application, and may seek further information where necessary. Geoscience Australia will advise you when the licence term is to commence operation.
For further information, if required, or for further information on any copyright matters, please contact the Geoscience Australia - Geospatial & Earth Monitoring Division Copyright Administrator or the Remote Sensing Client Services Copyright Officer.