25 January 2022 - Australia buys copyright to Aboriginal flag
Free for all: Copyright for Aboriginal flag transferred to public hands in $20m deal
Rob Harris (The Sydney morning Herald, 24/01/2022)
The Aboriginal flag will be transferred to public hands for the first time, freeing its use for Indigenous community groups and sporting codes after the Australian government reached a historic deal with its creator to permanently acquire copyright more than 50 years after it was first flown.
The $20 million taxpayer-funded settlement will end a long-running legal controversy surrounding its use by allowing the ensign to be painted on sports grounds, used on apparel such as sports jerseys and shirts, on websites, in paintings and other artworks, digitally and in any other medium without having to ask for permission or pay a fee.
Don’t say the Aboriginal flag was ‘freed’ – it belongs to us, not the Commonwealth
Bronwyn Carlson (The Conversation, 25/01/2022)
Today we woke to the news the Australian government has negotiated with the designer of the Aboriginal flag Harold Thomas, and copyright for the flag will be transferred to the Commonwealth. The government has now stated the flag is freely available for public use. Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated:
We’ve freed the Aboriginal flag for Australians.
While many Indigenous people are celebrating today and rejoicing in the idea the flag has been “freed,” I am not so sure.
Indigenous community celebrates Aboriginal flag copyright transferred to Commonwealth
(ABC News, 25/01/2022)
Clothing the Gaps co-founder Laura Thompson celebrates as the Aboriginal flag is now freely available for public use, after its designer agreed to transfer copyright to the Commonwealth following long negotiations.
Who is Harold Thomas, the man who created the Aboriginal flag?
(ABC News, 24/01/2022)
The Aboriginal flag, for the first time, can now be freely used by all Australians.
That's because Harold Thomas, the man who designed the flag, agreed to transfer its copyright to the Commonwealth after a prolonged legal dispute over the flag's use.
It means the red, yellow and black flag that has long been a symbol of Aboriginal Australia, as Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt put it, "now belongs to everyone, and no-one can take it away".