A warm welcome to all visitors of the brand new Unlocking IP blog the “House of Commons”. It is our great pleasure to open these doors for the first time. The house is a testament to what happens when a researcher consumes too much coffee at the same time as reflecting on a very interesting area of research (this is how it was conceived). Working on the Unlocking IP project (one of the research projects conducted by the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre) I realised how much there is to learn about the ‘unlocking’ potential of intellectual property and the notion of ‘the commons’. A blog seemed like the obvious next step for our project. It presents a dynamic forum to communicate ideas, get feedback and have some fun at the same time.

The tenants of this house are several members of the Unlocking IP research team, namely, Catherine Bond (often found sitting in the study underneath pages of legislation and clutching copyright notices), Ben Bildstein (on the front porch, laptop in tow, frantically programming and inching closer toward discovering his inner geek) and Abi Paramaguru (running around and making sure everything is in order before collapsing asleep on the kitchen table). The three of us will post the bulk of the content in our bloghouse. However, in the near future, we hope to welcome posts from some of the amazing people affiliated with our project as exciting houseguests.

It has been a long journey and the house is still being renovated (excuse the rubble) but we hope every visit is worthwhile. We encourage you to bring friends and visit as often as you are able. Most importantly we hope that what you see inside provokes you to take a look at intellectual property from some different perspectives.

Cheers!

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As it currently stands the content available on this blog is not available for reuse under any open content license. This is subject to change.

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This blog is run by research staff affiliated with the ARC-funded Unlocking IP project based at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, University of New South Wales. The blog is hosted by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), a joint venture between the faculties of law at University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales.

For information on contributors, please see our contributors page.

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Ben Bildstein
Ben is the technical PhD researcher on the Unlocking IP project. Before this, he worked for three years in professional software development at a Canberra-based company called Kisters, and going back even further, he did undergraduate studies at the University of Tasmania, where in 2002 he graduated with first class honours in a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Systems).





Catherine Bond
Catherine Bond is the legal PhD researcher on the Unlocking IP project. Her thesis will involve an analysis of the state of Australia's copyright commons and how licensing can be used to broaden the commons. Prior to commencing her postgraduate studies, Catherine completed a Bachelor of Media and Bachelor of Laws with Hons 1 at Macquarie University. Catherine's research interests centre on copyright law in the digital age, Crown copyright and Internet-related legal issues including defamation and online gaming. She is a regular contributor to the Computers & Law Journal.



Abi Paramaguru
Abi Paramaguru is a Research and Policy Officer at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, UNSW. She coordinates and carries out research on the Unlocking IP and Interpreting Privacy Principles projects.

Abi completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in computer science and Bachelor of Laws with Honours from Macquarie University and is admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales as a lawyer. Abi has worked at the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), and at Baker and McKenzie, Sydney.

Sophia Christou
Sophia Christou is a research assistant at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre. She holds an LLB and a BA (Film/Theatre & Performance Studies) from UNSW. Sophia is currently temporarily filling in for Abi, working on the Unlocking IP and Interpreting Privacy Principles projects, as well as working on the new Virtual Worlds project at the Centre.

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We invite commenting and discussion on our posts. We are happy for all feedback, whether private or public. There are three ways...

E-mail
(this uses reCAPTCHA Mailhide to help digitise the public domain!)
Ben Bildstein: ben....@student.unsw.edu.au
Catherine Bond: cath...@student.unsw.edu.au
Abi Paramaguru: a.pa...@unsw.edu.au
(to test how well this works: ben....@gmail.com)

Guest posts
We welcome guest posts by those with expertise or professional experience in this area. Please contact a.paramaguru@unsw.edu.au if you are interested in contributing a post to the House of Commons.

Comment on our posts
Please use the comment feature at the end of the post pages. However, comments on our blog are moderated, so your comment will not be visible until it has been approved by one of the blog members.

Note:
Though we expect to publish most comments, and discourage people masquerading as others, we are not in a position to undertake (a) to publish every comment, or (b) to actively check authenticity of posters' identity. The Comments are accordingly included on an "as is" basis; you as a reader should make your own inquiries and draw your own conclusions.

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Unless otherwise noted, the views expressed in this website are those of the relevant contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the project as a whole or the project supporters and other participants.

Details on this website are as accurate as possible. The project and contributors will not be held responsible for any changes to the material or errors in the content of this site.

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