[Update: arising from this conference, a major ARC research grant was awarded in June 2005 to a consortium of participants. See the project page.]

Featuring cutting-edge perspectives from the frontiers of education, law, publishing and IT, this groundbreaking two-day conference covered creative licensing, and explored new models for sharing and trading intellectual property works.

Materials are now available for most speakers – see the relevant section.

People take extreme positions about intellectual property: from 'maximalists' who advocate complete private control through statutory rights, criminal penalties, contracts and technological protection, to those who advocate a wish to see as many works as possible in the 'public domain', free of any private rights. But many works (including content and software) are now located on a new continuum between these extremes. This conference explored the many points in between, and considered whether and how new models can be applied to emerging problems.

Session topics covered:

• business models for publishing, IT and licensing
• the copyrights continuum
• analysis of licences for 'Open Source' or 'Free' software, and 'Open Content'
• sharing and trading learning resources
• examples of good practice
• policy directions from legal and educational perspectives
• overviews of international developments in this emerging field

Much of the focus is on copyright, but there is also coverage of the role of patents and other ways of managing intellectual property in certain areas.

Contributors include:

• legal pioneers James Boyle and Yochai Benkler from the US
• DEST online copyright expert Evan Arthur
• Michael Fraser from Copyright Agency Ltd
• Prof Michael Pendelton from the Copyright Law Review Committee
• lawyers Anne Flahvin, Brendan Scott, Ian Oi and Ross McLean
• UNSW IP academics Jill McKeough, Graham Greenleaf and Kathy Bowrey
• Pia Smith of Linux Australia
• AEShareNet chair Roger Clarke
• Kimberlee Weatherall from IPRIA,
• and other eminent speakers and practitioners from publishing, technology and education.

Unlocking IP will provide an outstanding forum to explore IP and copyright issues, some of the “most contentious of the information millennium.” If you work in education, publishing, law or technology and want to challenge your ideas on intellectual property, or learn how to adapt to the opportunities raised by the new models, this is the conference for you.

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