Discovery Project:
The Future of Television: Australian Legal Protection of Digital Broadcast Content
2005-2007

The Centre for Media and Communications Law at the University of Melbourne is currently undertaking Australian Research Council funded research into the implications of technical content protection mechanisms to digital broadcast material in Australia. The project will combine legal and empirical research, across the fields of copyright and broadcasting, to assess technical and regulatory options for the protection of digital broadcast content in a rapidly changing communications environment.

Television broadcasting performs central democratic, economic and cultural functions, with a key place in Australia’s media. But technological changes pose fundamental and urgent challenges for all broadcasters. By investigating mechanisms to protect digital content, the project will advance understanding of a crucial issue in the digital economy. The project aims to increase understanding of options for protecting broadcast content to promote innovation in content production and distribution, while not restraining reasonable content uses nor hindering innovative consumer electronics.

Chief investigator – Andrew Kenyon
Research Fellows – Jason Bosland, Robin Wright

Researchers working on the project will be conducting interviews with representatives of the broadcasting industry in Australia in 2006. For further information on the project please contact:

Andrew Kenyon
Ph: +61 3 8344 9972
Fax: +61 3 9349 0973
a.kenyon@unimelb.edu.au

Jason Bosland
Ph: +61 3 8344 1128
Fax: +61 3 9348 0973
j.bosland@unimelb.edu.au