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AEShareNet, established in August 2000 and owned by the Australian government Ministers with responsibility for education and training, arose from the desire to simplify the copyright issues surrounding nationally owned resources, a concept of clean copyright clearances and sharing of resources between the Commonwealth, States and Territories. This paper reviews the establishment and subsequent development of AEShareNet, which was established in a largely paper-based environment but had to change to cater to the digital world. Focusing on vocational education and training (VET) during the same period, the paper looks at the changes in the national VET system, identifying the need for an efficient infrastructure to encourage and facilitate the sharing of learning resources. AEShareNet developed four licensing protocols covering virtually all the kinds of transactions likely to be required and developed an online system that enables resources to be able to be discovered and licensed electronically. The current activities of AEShareNet are reviewed and the paper concludes by suggesting that critical areas for research remain.