Copyright laws prevent councils posting DAs online

Following advice from the Crown Solicitor, councils may no longer be able to post plans and documents relating to new developments online, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

This would make it much harder for residents to protest against local developments, and would mean that people wishing to review applications or make submissions would be forced to sit at the council and go through the documents themselves.

The Planning Act, and state freedom of information laws, ensure that the public is entitled to access development applications. In NSW, the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 requires councils to make copies of DA plans available to the public and publish them on their websites. However, the Crown Solicitor’s advice highlights the fact that, under the federal Copyright Act, councils may not copy, publish or distribute copyrighted plans or consultants’ reports without author permission. Such documents can only be “viewed” at council premises, not copied or published online.

The Office of the Information Commissioner told councils of the Crown Solicitor’s advice last year, but most continue to publish DAs, and to copy and distribute documents.

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