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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 40 | August 1999


Matters of the mind—and the law

Ian David, Henrietta Fourmille & Prof. Malcolm Gillies

Left to right: Ian David, screenwriter;
Henrietta Fourmile, Centre for Indigenous
History and the Arts, University of Western
Australia; Professor Malcolm Gillies,
President, National Academies Forum

Who owns and controls music on the Internet? Likewise, Aboriginal knowledge of plants and animals, human genetic information, meteorological data? These and many other curly issues were debated at the ‘Symposium on Scholarship, Intellectual Ownership and the Law’ in Canberra on 15–16 July.

The symposium, organised by the National Library and the National Academies Forum, was held to promote greater awareness of present and proposed laws dealing with intellectual ownership. As the President of the National Academies Forum, Professor Malcolm Gillies, noted: ‘The rapid technological break-throughs of the last 40 years have not been paralleled by equally swift changes in the law.’

As a professor of music he has been intrigued by the recent explosion of music on the Internet. ‘Every day millions of people are downloading the intellectual property of others. Artistic enthusiasms and commercial piracy have completely overtaken the capacities of law makers and law enforcers.’

The proposed Digital Agenda Copyright Bill attempts to balance the interests of copyright owners against users of their material. It is a compromise between the private and public interest, with libraries maintaining the need for strong ‘fair use’ of digital materials.

Speakers from the Australian Society of Authors, Screenrights, the Australian Consumers Association, the Australian Copyright Council and the Australian Digital Alliance presented papers on where that balance should lie between the rights of creators and the public interest.

The symposium program, speakers’ CVs and short abstracts of the papers are on the National Academies Forum Internet site (http://www.naf.org.au/iosymp.htm). More detailed summaries of the papers and the symposium discussions will be made available on the site in mid-August. For further information ring Nancy Lane at (02) 6247 5777.


| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |

Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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