A new survey being conducted for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is discovering how much Commonwealth public servants copy in their everyday work.
According to the organisers, hundreds of public servants have already participated in the survey, with thousands more expected to follow.
The Department arranged for the survey, which is being used to inform an agreement between the Australian Government and Copyright Agency to pay copyright owners for use of copyright materials.
“I want to thank everyone participating in the survey,” said Ben Phelps, Assistant Secretary for the Content and Copyright branch.
“This data helps us understand how our use of copyright material has changed since the last survey we conducted almost two decades ago,” he said.
“Since then, high-speed internet, mobile devices and apps for work have completely changed how we work.”
He said that by law, everyone including the Australian Government is required to pay for copyright uses.
“Rather than contacting every copyright owner to pay for each use, the Commonwealth has an agreement with Copyright Agency to pay copyright owners for Commonwealth use of copyright material.”
Mr Phelps said Commonwealth public servants were being invited by email to participate in the survey until the end of April 2021.
He said the Australian Public Service Commission randomly selected invited public servants from the Australian Public Service Employment Database in accordance with privacy law.
