Law for Creative Innovation

The Law for Creative Innovation program incorporates and builds upon the Centre’s flagship law programs previously known as “Creative Commons Clinic”, “Creative Commons and Open Content Licensing” and “Knowledge Culture and Economy in Web 2.0 World: Reconciling Rights of Creators, Owners, Citizens and Consumers (KCE2.0)”.

“Law for Creative Innovation” seeks to examine and propose ways in which intellectual property laws can best be structured and implemented to promote information flow and innovation in the networked environment. A key feature of this work is the continued development of the Creative Commons licensing model in Australia and overseas.

Progress for 2010
Researchers in this program have continued to develop the concept and implementation of Creative Commons copyright licensing in Australia and internationally. They have been involved in the development of a new version of the CC licence suite for Australia (Version 3 launched in June 2010) and the development of CC licensing in the Arab region.

Researchers in this program have continued to promote and influence the adoption of Creative Commons licensing by creative industries, the education sector and government and the public sector more generally through scholarly writings, running conferences and delivering conference presentations, executive briefings, academic courses and teaching as well as the delivery of nationwide training programs such as the Creative Commons Roadshow.

At a broader level researchers in the program have undertaken investigation of cutting edge legal issues relating to copyright and patent law and partnered with Beijing University Law School and East China University of Political Science and Law to run an international conference on the “300 Years of Copyright: From Statute of Anne to Digital Copyright 2010” in Shanghai in November 2010 and Universities Australia to run the “The Open Innovation Model in Science Government and Research” at Parliament House in Canberra.

Researchers have been invited to speak at conferences in Korea, the US, China, Italy, Canada and the UK. Two PhD students – Nicolas Suzor (Governance in Virtual Environments) and Sampsung Shi (Copyright Law, Evolutionary Economics and Innovation) – graduated in 2010.

We have run workshops on Web 2.0 and rights management for organisations including Queensland Writers Centre in Cairns and Townsville, Propel Youth Arts in Perth as part of the Australia Council for the Arts’ JUMP National Mentoring Program, City Studios, JMC Academy, The Producers Conference (Melbourne), Valley Arm’s White Noise Music workshops, Q Music, Byron Bay International Film Festival, Arts Queensland, Griffith University Film School, Peer 2 Peer University and QUT Independent Music Project.
Plans for 2011

We plan to:
• progress the further development and implementation of Creative Commons licensing in the creative, education, research and government sectors through research and training seminars
• run an international conference on the future of copyright – the Blue Sky of Copyright – in early 2011.
• publish a reader on the History of Copyright (3 Volumes) through Ashgate Publishers in the UK
• teach a unit on Copyright in the QUT WIPO Master of Laws
• continue to supervise PhD students with at least one completion expected in 2011
• continue to publish on CC licensing and copyright more generally

Impact
Key adopters of CC licensing in 2010 include the Australian Parliamentary Library, Australian Treasury in the form of the 2010 Budget papers and CSIRO through the Atlas of Living Australia.
Senator Kate Lundy, Dr Terry Cutler and Dr Nicholas Gruen launched at the State Library of Queensland’s digital culture centre The Edge Professor Brian Fitzgerald’s 2 volume edited collection Access to Public Sector Information: Technology, Law and Policy.

Skye Reeve, who undertook the Creative Commons Clinic undergraduate research unit in 2010 was encouraged to develop her research paper and her ensuing project, etc: remixing the visual arts, was a successful recipient of an inaugural Creative Commons Catalyst Grant awarded by Creative Commons Corporation in a worldwide competition.

On 5-6 November 2010 the “Law for Creative Innovation” program jointly hosted an international conference in Shanghai with the IP Law Schools of East China University of Political Science and Law and Peking University titled “300 Years of Copyright Law: From Statute of Anne to Digital Copyright 2010”. Keynote presentations at the conference were delivered by the Honourable Justice Emmett, Judge of the Federal Court of Australia and Chair of the Australian Copyright Tribunal and Chief Justice Kong of the Supreme People’s Court (the highest court in China).

Presentations were also made from a number of leading international professors, including Professor Brian Fitzgerald of QUT, Professor Anne Fitzgerald of QUT, Professor Mark Perry of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, Professor Lydia Loren of Lewis & Clark Law School, United States and Professor Susy Frankel of Victoria University, New Zealand.

Professor Fitzgerald was a member of the international Copyright Principles Project headed by Professor Pam Samuelson of UC Berkeley – whose final report “Directions for Reform” was published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

International collaboration
Researchers in this project have continued to engage in international collaboration. Working with East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL) and Peking/Beijing University (running an international conference on copyright in November 2010 in Shanghai), the University of Western Ontario (publishing a book and running an intensive unit on copyright law), Creative Commons (Head Office, San Francisco)(completing version 3 of the CC Au licence), the EU's Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information Network (LAPSI) (attending a workshop in Turin, Italy), Korea's Creative Commons Project (delivering a paper at the World E Government Conference in Seoul), New Zealand’s Creative Commons Project (appointment to the Advisory Committee) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (through teaching in the QUT-WIPO Masters of Law on copyright).

New Knowledge Generated
This program has generated knowledge - at a practical and conceptual level - on how Creative Commons licensing can be used in Australia and internationally. It has led the way in developing and implementing a framework for understanding the application of CC licences to Public Sector Information (PSI) to the point where in November of 2010 the Federal Government of Australia amended its "Statement of IP Principles" to say: "11.(b) Consistent with the need for free and open re-use and adaptation, public sector information should be licensed by agencies under the Creative Commons BY standard as the default." Our work has played a significant role in influencing similar policy developments in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Korea. Much of the conceptual (including economic) rationale underpinning this approach is presented in the book, B. Fitzgerald (ed) Access to Public Sector Information: Technology Law and Policy (2010).

The program has also been a leader in Australia and internationally in mapping out the contours of copyright for digital age being involved with an international project led by Professor Samuelson of UC Berkeley that released a report on copyright reform - Copyright Principles Project, Directions for Reform (2010) published in the prestigious Berkeley Technology Law Journal and releasing a book by M Perry and B Fitzgerald (eds) on Knowledge Policy for the 21st Century which provides guidance on key copyright issues confronting government, educational and creative sectors in the networked era.
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Creative Commons Roadshow 2010

The Law for Creative Innovation program ran the Creative Commons Roadshow 2010, a series of one-day mini-conferences held in six cities around Australia:

• Melbourne – 1 September;
• Perth – 2 September;
• Sydney – 15 September;
• Brisbane – 17 September;
• Adelaide – 22 September; and
• Hobart – 23 September

In partnership with a strategic partner in each city, the roadshows provided attendees with detailed instruction on the operation and use of CC licensing across multiple sectors including the creative industries, government and education. Each program included speakers and case studies from that city including:

• Andrew Garton – Strategic Development and Operations at open-source, video sharing platform EngageMedia and independent producer, composer and media artists;
• Delia Browne, National Copyright Director of the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs and Co-founder of Peer 2 Peer University;
• Dr Tama Leaver, Lecturer in Internet Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University of Technology;
• Andrew Davies, John Jacobs and Jonathon Hutchinson from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s user-generated content sharing platform ABC Pool;
• Paula Bray, Manager, Visual and Digitisation Services at the Powerhouse Museum;
• Jamie Seyfang, Jacob Simionato, Daniel Feuerriegel of Wholesale Meat Music ; and
• John Barrett, State Strategic Water Information Coordinator, Government of South Australia.
• Gavin Artz, Chief Executive Officer at the Australian Network for Art and Technology
• Neale Hooper, Crown Lawyer and Director of the Government Information Licensing Framework Queensland Government
• Jake Steel, Slow Release at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAPA)

The decentralised approach proved very popular, attracting more than 300 attendees across the six events. The ccAustralia roadshow model has also inspired the Creative Commons Bus trip around South America scheduled for early 2011.