AEShareNet Concept
Please note: This section of the website details activities prior to TVET Australia Limited assuming management of the AEShareNet licensing system and as such may not reflect the current policy or procedure of TVET Australia Limited. This information remains unchanged and is retained for your information.
The management of intellectual property rights in the modern world is an increasingly vexed issue. Technologies such as the Internet are making it easier to disseminate, reproduce and adapt information. In some sectors there is constant exchange, re-use and re-development of standard or ‘core’ materials. The creation of derivative works may fragment ownership under copyright law. Thus identifying the owners of different layers of intellectual property can be difficult. Whilst the material itself may be commonplace, putting in place appropriate licensing arrangements may involve cost and delay that is disproportionate to the value of the material in question. As a result, the productive value-adding to materials may be deterred, or necessary copyright licensing arrangements may simply be overlooked or ignored, leading to legal complications.
The Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector exhibits all these and certain other Conditions which necessitate a fresh approach to copyright licensing. The VET Sector is responsible for the production of competency standards and competency-based curriculum and learning materials valued at many millions of dollars. VET Materials are critical to the delivery of training leading to nationally recognised qualifications. A comprehensive, efficient system is urgently needed to streamline reciprocal copyright licensing practices and reduce costs for the benefit of all VET Stakeholders , including Commonwealth departments and agencies, their State counterparts and private training providers and users.
The Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) and the Australian Government Solicitor (AGS) have developed a solution to the above licensing problems, called AEShareNet. The name AEShareNet is a contraction of ‘Australian Educational Sharing Network’. The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Ministerial Council has agreed to a major ANTA National Project to implement AEShareNet.
AEShareNet is an innovative approach to licensing, which addresses the difficulties referred to above. The system blends aspects of contract law, copyright and trade-marks in a unique way - see AEShareNet - Key Elements . It is particularly suitable for implementation on the Internet, and will ultimately make use of emerging technologies for encryption and digital copyright management.
AEShareNet could be described variously as:
- an extension of the concept of ‘shareware’ and ‘freeware’ familiar in the software field;
- a legal macro language or shorthand for transacting copyright licenses;
- a framework for use of standard metadata tags for rights management;
- a complement to technical systems of digital copyright management, especially on the Internet.
See About AEShareNet for a description of the project as it has now been implemented.