Project Participants

This ARC funded research project is based at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia, but the participants and partners come from across the country.

Researchers

The following alphabetic list comprises the intellectual property and IT law academics who are the Chief Investigators, together with (as indicated) two individual Partner Investigators, a consultant and a project manager.

Dr Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales Faculty of Law - Author of Law and internet Cultures, Oxford (2005) and co-author of Intellectual Property. Commentary and Materials (2nd Ed 2002, 3rd Ed, 2005); member AHRB Copyright Research Network (UK).
Philip Chung, UTS Faculty of Law – Lecturer in Law and Executive Director, Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) (UTS/UNSW) – developer of legal commons (AustLII/WorldLII), and supervisor of the computing aspects of the project.
Visiting Professor Roger Clarke (Project Consultant), Visiting Professor UNSW, e-commerce consultant and Chair, AEShareNet Limited.
Philip Crisp (Industry Partner), Special Counsel, Australian Government Solicitor and lead draftsperson, AESL licence suite.
Professor James Dalziel, Director of the Macquarie E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE).
Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Law - Joint Project Leader, iCommons Australia and co-author of two books on intellectual property.
Professor Philip Griffith, University of Technology, Sydney Faculty of Law - co-author of the leading texts Intellectual Property. Commentary and Materials (2nd Ed 2002, 3rd Ed, 2005) and Intellectual Property in Australia Lexis Nexis Butterworths (3rd Ed 2004).
Professor Graham Greenleaf, UNSW Faculty of Law - Co-Director Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) and Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, developer of legal commons (AustLII/WorldLII).
Ian Oi (Industry Partner), Special Counsel Corrs Chmabers Westgarth, Joint Project Leader iCommons Australia and lead draftsperson, iCommons Australia licences.
Professor Bryan Mercurio, Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Law; University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, Director of the International Trade and Development Project, Gilbert+Tobin Centre of Public Law, author and editor of books on international trade and electronic democracy.
Professor Jill McKeough, Dean, University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law – Member of the Ergas Committee reviewing competition and IP in Australia, co-author of the leading texts Intellectual Property. Commentary and Materials (2nd Ed 2002, 3rd Ed, 2005) and Intellectual Property in Australia Lexis Nexis Butterworths (3rd Ed 2004).
Professor Michael Pendleton, Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law and formerly Murdoch University Faculty of Law - member of the Copyright Law Review Committee and Foundation Director, Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Law Institute.
Dr Matthew Rimmer, Australian National University Faculty of Law - senior lecturer in the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture.
David Vaile (Project Manager), Executive Director, Cyberpace Law and Policy Centre, University of New South Wales.

Industry Partners and Partner Investigators

The project has five industry partners, each of which has strong business reasons for commitment to this project, and will actively collaborate in particular parts of the research relevant to their interests, particularly through 'Partner Investigators' (PIs).

AEShareNet Limited (AESL) is a non-profit company (established by the Australian Ministers of Education and Training), It operates a collaborative system (see AESL 2005) to streamline the licensing of intellectual property so that Australian learning materials are developed, shared and adapted efficiently, particularly in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. AESL is developing a suite of licences involving various degrees of public rights, to encourage and enable such sharing and trading, and business models based on them. Carol Fripp, AESL General Manager, is a PI.
Baker & McKenzie have been the lawyers acting for the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC) for some years and much of that work involved IP issues concerning educational licensing. As a law firm which also has a substantial involvement in IP and IT issues generally, plus this specific interest in the implications for tertiary education, it is particularly important to the firm that its IP lawyers are ‘ahead of the game’ in understanding the fundamental changes taking place in relation to the role of public rights in IP, and in implementing these new forms of licensing for its clients. Baker & McKenzie IP partner Ross McLean and senior associate Anne Flahvin are PIs.
IBM Australia Ltd (IBM) has made a very significant investment in the development of Open Source software and in adapting its business model to take advantage of Open Source and Open Standards. Aspects of IBM's business have a similar core interest in this project's Open Source activities as Linux Australia; it is also keen to explore the requirements for and obstacles to 'open standards', and to understand where open content may be relevant. It is an Industry Partner in that specific aspect of this project. 'Rusty' Russell, a senior developer with IBM's Linux Labs, is a PI.
Linux Australia is an association which is one of the main industry organisations advocating Open Source software (mainly representing individual developers). It has a fundamental interest in better understanding the relationships between their particular licensing model (based on the General Public Licence (GPL)) and the broader public rights licences now arising (AESL licences, Creative Commons licences etc). They also need to investigate more fully aspects of copyright which have the capacity to promote or impede these models, by affecting implementation risk and business efficacy. Pia Waugh, software consultant and former president of Linux Australia, is a PI.
Open Source Industry Australia Limited (OSIA) is a non-profit organisation supporting software developers basing their business in part on open source software. OSIA Director Brendan Scott is a PI.