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National Competition Policy Review Discussion Paper
Council of Law Reporting Act 1969
6. Copyright in Judgments
The State Government holds copyright in the judicial decisions of NSW courts. However, copyright may be waived on request and the Attorney General has never refused such a request. More recently, waiver of copyright in judicial decisions has been permitted pursuant to a notice by the then Attorney General published in the in the Government Gazette in 1995.12
This instrument stated that copyright of judicial decisions continues to reside in the State, but that any publisher is authorised to publish and otherwise deal with any judicial decision so long as they do “not indicate directly or indirectly that it is an official version of the material or that it is a version of the material published by or for the Council or any other law reporting agency of the State”.13 The notice stated that the partial waiver of copyright by the State “is desirable in the interests of the people of New South Wales that access to such decisions should not be impeded except in limited special circumstances.”
Copyright in the version of judgments, as edited by the Council of Law Reporting (the “authorised” reports) and the headnotes accompanying these judgments, resides in the Council. However, as noted above, unreported judgments have always been available for publication by anyone who considers there is a market for the reporting of such unreported judgments.
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12 Government Gazette No.23, 3 March 1995, at p.1087.
13 Government Gazette No.23, 3 March 1995, at p.1087.
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