According to the release statement standardizing the way New Zealand government information is licensed is aimed at stimulating re-use of PSI resulting in both creative and economic benefit to New Zealand.

The New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing Framework (NZGOAL) "provides a series of open licensing and open access principles for copyright works and non-copyright material. These principles address, among other things, issues relating to open licensing, open access, creativity, authenticity, non-discrimination, open format and charging. It also guides agencies through the questions they need to consider before releasing material for re-use." The framework stipulates the release of copyright material under a Creative Commons BY (by attribution) license unless restrictions need to apply, as well as the release of non-copyright material with a 'no known rights' statement.

NZGOAL applies to all material produced by or for State Services agencies, and includes amongst others geospatial datasets, scientific datasets, statistics, photos, archive film. Software is not covered by NZGOAL. Naturally personalized information is excluded but NZGOAL does contain guidance on anonymizing data that then can be released. Furthermore it calls for non-discrimination (i.e. not let license make distinction between personal, non-commercial or commercial use), as well as using formats that are appropriate for re-use and when it concerns data sets adding them to the national data catalogue.

In an article on the In Development blog Keitha Booth (State Services Commission) and Richard Best (Dept of Internal Affairs) say that "The next step is to embed NZGOAL into agencies’ publishing and information release processes. We are starting with a training programme for State Services agencies in October/November and are developing an online tool to assist agencies review and release their material for re-use. The Department of Internal Affairs is working to update the copyright advice in the New Zealand Government Web Standards, and the State Services Commission is commencing work to update the Policy Framework for Government Held Information."

The news of NZGOAL's release has been well received as illustrated by the reaction of the Open Knowledge Foundation who said in their blog "Amazing work — and we hope that other governments will take note and follow suit!"

Read the NZGOAL online, or download NZGOAL in PDF.

Further links of interest:

A letter of the State Services Commissioner alerting public service chief executives to NZGOAL

The Cabinet Paper on NZGOAL

A set of questions and answers regarding NZGOAL