In The Government and Copyright, John Gilchrist poses the following questions regarding government and the Copyright Act 1968: ‘Should the government have a role as preserver of its own and privately owned copyright material? […] How adequate is the present law to achieve this objective?’ Similar questions could be applied to nineteenth-century Australia. As Government Printer, Thomas Richards oversaw the printing operations of the NSW Government Printing Office (GPO). When the Copyright Act 1879 (NSW) was enacted, Richards was appointed Registrar of Copyright and Office of Copyright Registry was situated at the GPO. Why was the government printer responsible for copyright, not the government or the libraries that oversaw legal deposit? Did Richards have the necessary resources? Was there a conflict of interest? This essay seeks to gauge the relationship between the GPO and the Copyright Act 1879 and the wider implications of copyright for nineteenth-century Australian print culture.

在《政府与版权》一书中，约翰·吉尔克里斯特 (John Gilchrist) 就政府和1968 年版权法提出了以下问题：“政府是否应该作为自己和私有版权材料的保护者？[...] 现行法律是否足以实现这一目标？类似的问题也适用于 19 世纪的澳大利亚。作为政府印刷商，Thomas Richards 负责监督新南威尔士州政府印刷局 (GPO) 的印刷业务。当1879年版权法(NSW) 颁布，理查兹被任命为版权注册官，版权注册办公室设在 GPO。为什么政府印刷商负责版权，而不是监管法定缴存的政府或图书馆？理查兹有必要的资源吗？是否存在利益冲突？本文旨在衡量 GPO 与1879 年版权法之间的关系，以及版权对 19 世纪澳大利亚印刷文化的更广泛影响。