Office of the Queen's Printer for Scotland
We have produced a range of guidance relating to Crown copyright material produced by officers or servants of the Crown in the Scottish Administration and also for copyright material produced by the Scottish Parliament. The guidance is aimed at Government departments, agencies and all users of Crown copyright protected materials. This guidance is designed to guide, alert and advise on a range of publishing, copyright and access issues. We welcome as wide a dissemination of these guidance notes as possible and they may be copied and distributed without restriction, through newsletters, email, notice boards, in training manuals, on websites and by various other means.
In addition to this guidance, the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has issued additional guidance applying to Crown copyright in England, Wales & Northern Ireland. The following guidance is available:
Our guidance notes aim to place policy on access and re-use of Crown copyright protected material in its full practical context. The current list of guidance notes produced by us is listed below.
We recognise that many users have a particular interest in certain types of government material. We have aimed to make each guidance note as comprehensive and self contained as possible.
Chapter 5 of the Future Management of Crown Copyright (PDF - 203 kb) (external website) identified a number of categories of government material in which copyright is waived. As mentioned above, we have issued guidance notes on some of the categories where waiver conditions apply. Further guidance notes on the waiver categories will be issued in due course.
Waiver means that although copyright is asserted, Government wishes to encourage the widespread use of the material. Users are permitted to copy or publish the material in any medium without having to seek formal permission or to pay a fee. We do, however, ask that users ensure that:
No, although users should be careful when reproducing waiver material from commercial products and websites that they do not inadvertently infringe third party copyrights. If in doubt contact OQPS Licensing.
Where the material you wish to reproduce falls outside the scope of the above guidance you should apply for a Click-Use licence. Click-Use: Apply to re-use Crown Copyright.
If you have any queries or comments then let us know. In the light of comments we do amend our guidance especially if it is not as clear as we hoped.
We also welcome comments on any other topics where departments, agencies and users would find guidance useful. If you would like to add your name to the guidance note distribution list, please OQPS Licensing at: oqpslicensing@oqps.gov.uk.