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Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU

Licenses - Government Press Services & Archives

 

This page hosts the effort to map the licenses used by European government's press services and archives as well as the potential to convince more institutions to use free licenses.

Root Idea

Public Domain or free licensing for government works is a core goal of Wikimedia's public policy activities. The original idea behind copyright is to provide an economic incentive for creation. This extra motivation is usually not necessary for government works, as content would be created anyway. Still, loss of revenue is one of the more common arguments against freely licensing content. More data on the actual revenue earned by government agencies by licensing copyrighted works would be helpful to carry the conversation forward.

Desired Information

Ideally, we would ask government agencies that have content relevant to Wikipedia or our other projects. In order to scale the campaign, we're looking for agencies and content that exist in most or at least many European countries. As a result, we have decided to analyse the situation of government press services and national archives in each country.

National Archives

Country	Name & URL	Content license?	Volunteer	Get in touch?	FoI?	Chance for change	Comments
Austria	Österreichisches Staatserchiv					Possible	Check with WMAT first
Belgium	State Archives of Belgium
Bulgaria	Archives State Agency	Ongoing cooperation with Wikimedians of Bulgaria
Croatia	Croatian State Archives
Cyprus	Cyprus State Archives
Czech Republic	National Archives
Denmark	The Danish National Archives
European Commission	Historical Archives of the European Commission
European Parliament	Historical Archives of the European Parliament
Council of the European Union	Archives of the Council of the European Union
Estonia	National Archives of Estonia
Finland	The National Archive Service of Finland
France	Archives de France
Germany	Bundesarchiv
Greece	General State Archives of Greece
Hungary	The National Archives of Hungary
Iceland	National Archives of Iceland
Ireland	National Archives of Ireland
Italy	Central Archives of the State
Latvia	The National Archives of Latvia
Liechtenstein	Staatsarchiv Augsburg & Österreichisches Staatsarchiv
Lithuania	Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania
Luxembourg	Archives Nationales de Luxembourg
Malta	National Archives of Malta
Netherlands	National Archives of the Netherlands
Norway	The National Archives of Norway
Poland	The Head Office of the State Archives
Portugal	Instituto dos Arquivos Nacionais
Romania	The National Archives of Romania
Slovakia	Slovak National Archives
Slovenia	The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia
Spain	National Archives of Spain
Sweden	Swedish National Archives
Switzerland	Swiss Federal Archives
United Kingdom	The National Archives

Government Press Services

Country	Name & URL	Free collections?	Volunteer	Get in touch?	FoI?	Chance for change	Comments
Austria	Bundespresseamt	(c) incl. watermark				Possible	Check with WMAT first
Belgium	The Directorate-General for External Communication (Excom)
Bulgaria	Government Information Service						GISgovernment.bg
Croatia	Information Commissioner
Cyprus	Press and Information Office
Czech Republic	Government of the Czech Republic Media Centre
Denmark	Principal Press Secretary Jakob Bøving Arendt
European Commission	DG Communications - Spokesperson's Service
European Parliament	European Parliament Press Service
Council of the European Union	Press Centre
Estonia	Kommunikatsiooniburoo
Finland	Finland's press conference page
France	Prime Minister's Press Office
Germany	Bundespresseamt
Greece	Secretariat General of Communication & Information
Hungary	International Communications Office
Iceland
Ireland	Government Department Press Offices
Italy	Press and Institutional Communication Service (for Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Latvia	Andrejs Vaivars, Press Secretary of the Prime Minister
Liechtenstein	Information and Communications Unit of the Government
Lithuania	Communication Department/Press and Communication Unit
Luxembourg	Service Information et Presse (SIP)
Malta	Department of Information
Netherlands	Ministry of General Affairs
Norway	Press Contacts for the Office of the Prime Minister
Poland	Polish Press Office
Portugal
Romania	Liviu Iolu, Spokesperson for the Government
Slovakia	Slovak Press Department
Slovenia	Republic of Slovenia Government Communication Office
Spain	La Moncloa: Press Room
Sweden	Government Offices of Sweden Press Room
Switzerland	Vice Chancellor André Simonazzi, Spokesman for the Federal Council
United Kingdom	Home Office Press Office

National Archives

Current situation in Europe by country

UK en:wp:Open Government Licence
NL CC0 is the default license for the national Dutch government website(s)
DE de:wp:Amtliches_Werk
EC Re-use decision compatible with CC-BY

Past FoI Activites

Potential Partners

• Access Info Europe
• Open Knowledge
• Communia Association
• Open Society