Blue Sky: future directions in copyright law a success
Cheryl Foong, 21 March 2011
The Blue Sky: future directions in copyright law conference, an initiative of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi) and QUT Faculty of Law’s Intellectual Property: Knowledge, Culture, Economy (IP:KCE) research program, was held Friday 25 February 2011 in Sydney. The conference, convened by Professor Brian Fitzgerald and Ben Atkinson, brought leading experts in the field (from Australia, New Zealand and China) together in the historic Bather's Pavilion, Balmoral Beach.
Keynote speakers included:
- The Hon Robert McClelland, Commonwealth Attorney-General
- Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- The Hon Michael Kirby, former justice of the High Court
- Professor Adrian Sterling, University of London
- The Hon Justice Arthur Emmett, Federal Court of Australia
- Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Queensland University of Technology
- Professor Susy Frankel, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
The conference program is available here, and you can access the recordings of the conference on IP:KCE.
The Hon Robert McClelland MP, Commonwealth Attorney-General opened the conference by highlighting the difficulties faced by copyright industries in a digital world and outlining proposed copyright reforms. Whilst recognising the challenge of keeping up with technological developments, the Attorney-General expressed optimism “that copyright is very much alive and will continue to flourish” and adapt. A transcript of the speech is available at the A-G’s website.
Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) spoke on ‘The Future of Copyright’ (transcript available on WIPO’s website and recording on WIPO’s YouTube channel). In addressing the challenges faced by existing copyright industries, Dr Gurry recognised that digital technology and the internet created “the most powerful instrument for the democratization of knowledge since the invention of moveable type for printing” and emphasised that the technological advantage granted to some cannot be reversed. “Rather than resist it, we need to accept the inevitability of technological change and to seek an intelligent engagement with it. There is, in any case, no other choice – either the copyright system adapts to the natural advantage that has evolved or it will perish,” he said. Dr Gurry called for activism in bringing about this adaptation, i.e. maintaining a balanced copyright law through a conscious policy response, and not leaving it to “the chances of technological possibility and business evolution”. He also called for coherence and simplicity in tackling these challenges.
The Hon Michael Kirby focussed the conference’s attention on the need to rethink the IP system, by highlighting the adverse effects of IP law on developing countries. An example raised was its limiting effect on the availability of antiretroviral drugs for HIV sufferers. He declared that the world would not stand by and watch millions of people die of AIDS in the name of IP, and that business as usual is not a solution to IP law’s problems. He called for a Martin Luther of jurisprudence, not bound by the peculiarities of the past, to return to first principles and look anew for an approach to IP.
Professor Adrian Sterling gave an overview of his research on extraterrestrial copyright issues. He had found that in the internet context, our “earthbound”/territorial approach has left gaps in copyright regulation. He called for a “cosmic copyright system” which adequately covers transborder copyright material. Professor Sterling also noted the need to take into account public needs in this cosmic copyright system. “Private rights and public needs are not in opposition but form an independent double helix and should be mutually formulated as such,” he said. He illustrated the gravity of copyright’s problems as black holes, whereby “copyright is weakened and the public interest in the ordered regulation of copyright is increasingly prejudiced, possibly to the point of extinction in some areas.”
The conference lunch commemorated Professor Sterling’s outstanding contribution to the field of copyright law in Australia and internationally. In a career spanning over six decades, he held the position of Deputy Director General of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry 1961-73, he had an active role in the lobbying process that preceded the passage of the Australian Copyright Act 1968, and attended the Diplomatic Conferences leading to the Rome Convention in 1961, the Phonograms Convention 1971, the Berne Convention 1971 Revision and the WIPO Treaties 1996.
The Hon Justice Arthur Emmett of the Federal Court (who presided over the iiNet v AFACT decision which was handed down the day before the conference) spoke on ‘Roman Law, Private Property and the Public Domain’. His Honour provided an overview on the fundamentals of Roman Law and shared some interesting thoughts on how Roman Law might inform our response to the challenges facing us in the digital environment.
Professor Anne Fitzgerald emphasised that the main rationale for copyright in government works is to maintain the reliability and accuracy of government information.
Professor Susy Frankel spoke about the Free Trade Agreements and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
All in all, the conference has been a great success and has generated profile and publicity for QUT and CCi. In particular, Dr Gurry’s speech has been quoted widely: twice in The Australian Financial Review (Alex Boxsell, ‘Copyright, internet face new scrutiny’, 4 March 2011, p 43 and ‘Time to tackle digital piracy’, 8 March 2011, p 62), by the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), and in various online blog posts. The A-G’s announcement of copyright reviews at the conference has also been reported (see e.g. John Hilvert, ‘Canberra mulls a wider safe harbour’, iTnews, 28 February 2011).
Rami Olwan, a PhD researcher at Queensland University of Technology, has written up a brief blog post. A good write-up is also available on the Mosman Library Blog. Photos of the conference are available on Flickr.