Internet censorship and the Government's proposed filter program Seminar

Government-initiated trials are currently underway in Australia into ISP-level filtering of various internet content. The trials have raised widespread debate as well as diverse legal and technical questions. Join a panel of expert speakers at this seminar who will consider the national and international context of the filtering debate.

Chair: Craig Ng, Partner, Maddocks
Speakers: Andrew Kenyon, Professor and Director, CMCL, Melbourne Law School
Michael Malone, Managing Director, iiNet
Peter Eckersley, Staff Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco

Click here to to view the flyer/registration form

The moot will be presided over by the Honourable Justice Heerey of the Federal Court, along with Professor Sam Ricketson and Mr Warwick Rothnie.

Click here to view the invitation

25 February 2009
Melbourne Law School

26 February 2009
Allens Arthur Robinson

Privacy Case Law Implications for Contemporary Media Practices

Speakers
Michael Rivette, Chancery Chambers, Melbourne
Megan Richardson, Melbourne Law School

Melbourne
Karin Clark, Special Counsel, Allens Arthur Robinson (commentator)
Michael Pattison, Partner, Allens Arthur Robinson (chair)

Sydney
Michael Tilbury , Law Reform Commissioner of NSW (commentator)
Ian McGill, Partner, Allens Arthur Robinson (chair)

The Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in Giller v Procopets, handed down at the end of 2008, is the latest in a series of privacy decisions having implications for contemporary media practices. It has the potential to be even more significant in certain key respects than mooted law reform proposals. This seminar on the case law developments will feature experts from academia, law reform and legal practice, including one of the barristers representing Alla Giller in her (successful) appeal in Giller.

5 February 2009
Melbourne Law School

ISPs and the authorisation of their customers' copyright exploitations - an industry/academic forum

CMCL and the IPRIA from the University of Melbourne are convening a forum, chaired by Professor Sam Ricketson, to debate these issues.

Speakers
Frank Rittman, Motion Picture Association, Asia Pacific Regional Legal Counsel
Jane Perrier, Telstra, General Counsel Intellectual Property
David Brennan, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
Kim Weatherall, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland

20 & 21 November 2008
Melbourne Law School

Conference Program

Annual Conference - Media, Communications and Public Speech

Keynote speakers
Kathey Bowrey - Professor, Faculty of Law, University of NSW
Cherian George - Assistant Professsor, Acting Head of Journalism and Publishing, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University
Jonathan Griffiths - Queen Mary, University of London, School of Law
Dario Milo - Partner, Webber Wentzel, South Africa and University of the Witwatersrand
Katharine Sarikakis - Director, Centre for International Communications Research, Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds

11 November 2008 Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney

18 November 2008
Melbourne Law School

Defamation Law: Standards of journalism, privilege and fault

Dario Milo Partner, Webber Wentzel (South Africa) and university of the Witwatersrand
Marie McGonagle National University of Ireland, Galway

This seminar brings together international experts on freedom of speech and defamation law to examine the ways in which journalistic conduct is evaluated under the defamation law of South Africa, England and Northern Ireland. In each jurisdiction, the law now considers whether a defendant's conduct in publishing defamatory material is reasonable or responsible. The seminar promises valuable lessons from practice for the Australian law.

2 October 2008,
UNSW Kensington,
Sydney

8 October 2008,
Melbourne Law School

Privacy Law Reform and the Media

Professor Michael Tilbury, Law Reform Commissioner of NSW
Adrian Lawrence, Partner Baker & McKenzie (Sydney)
Professor Megan Richardson, CMCL (Sydney)
Matthew Ricketson, Media and Communications editor, The Age (Melbourne)
Michael Rivett, Victoria Bar (Melbourne)

In recent months, the NSW Law Reform Commission and Australian Law Reform Commission have been completing major inquiries into privacy law. The ALRC report "For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law Practice" was released in August with significant recommendations for the media and the NSW report is imminent. Parallel with these inquiries, case law avenues to protect privacy in Australia are developing. This seminar brings together experts from law reform, legal practice and the media to examine the implications of the law reform proposals and case law developments.

4 September 2008
Melbourne Law School

Better Information Security Regulation

Professor Jane Winn, Director, Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology (University of Washington)
Karin Clark (Special Counsel, Allens Arthur Robinson)
Anthony Bendall (Deputy Privacy Commissioner, Victoria).
Professor Megan Richardson, CMCL

The severity of security problems in information technology systems and networks has become ever more visible in recent years. At the same time, the issue of what government response is appropriate remains intensely controversial.
This seminar brings together Australian expert commentators and one of the world’s leading authorities on information security to review the nature, scope and severity of security problems in networked IT systems. US legislation and case law intended to address the problems will be outlined, and it will be seen that laws about matters such as security breach notification are poorly adapted to both the challenges for IT system operators and the public interest in achieving appropriate, sustainable security.
Professor Jane Winn will suggest that the “better”, “smart” or “responsive” regulation frameworks being developed outside the US might provide a better guide for law reform internationally.

15 April 2008
Piper Alderman, Melbourne

16 April 2008
Piper Alderman, Sydney

Alternatives to Defamation

Dr Matt Collins, Barrister
Jeremy Ruskin, QC (Melbourne seminar)
Bruce McClintock, SC (Sydney seminar)
Andrew Kenyon, CMCL

When your company’s reputation is unfairly attacked, it is unlikely to be able to sue for defamation.  This follows the introduction of Australia’s uniform defamation laws from January 2006.  However, can you still take legal action to protect and compensate your company?  This seminar examines the implications of the reformed law and explores advantages and disadvantages of available alternative causes of action, including defamation actions by the ‘public faces’ of corporations, and claims by corporations themselves for injurious falsehood, misleading or deceptive conduct, and negligence. The seminar addresses the extent to which legal ingenuity and innovation may enable an ‘end-run’ around the removal of the right of most corporations to sue for defamation.

Dr Matt Collins is a Melbourne-based Barrister practicing in all areas of commercial and media law. He is the author of The Law of Defamation and the Internet (2001), the first book to analyse systematically the application of rules of defamation to material published via the internet. The book has attracted wide acclaim in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

13 March 2008
Melbourne Law School

19 March 2008
Allens Arthur Robinson, Sydney

Litigating Privacy – Australia and the UK

Gavin Phillipson, Professor, Durham University
Michael Rivette, Barrister (Melbourne seminar)
Michael Tilbury, NSW Law Reform Commission (Sydney seminar)

Privacy has been the subject of a stream of cases in Australian and UK courts in recent years, including some which are still ongoing (in particular, Giller v Procopets [2004] VSC 113 and Jane Doe v ABC [2007] VCC 281 in the Victorian Court of Appeal). This seminar will include a broad discussion of issues arising in the current cases and ways in which they have been resolved to date and might be in the future. The speakers are both experts in the field of privacy and breach of confidence.

Michael Rivette is a barrister specialising in media and entertainment law and is representing Alla Giller in her appeal in Giller v Procopets.

Professor Gavin Phillipson of Durham University is a respected and much cited English authority on privacy and breach of confidence.

Professor Michael Tilbury is the full-time Commissioner at the New South Wales Law Reform Commission with particular responsibility for the Commission’s current reference on Invasion of Privacy.

LSAANZ – Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand 2007 International Conference

Markings
sites of analysis, discipline, interrogation

Hosted by the University of Melbourne Law School, its Centre for Media and Communications Law and Institute for International Law and the Humanities.

Plenary keynote speakers and Plenary panellists
Sadaf Aziz, Lahore University of Management Sciences
Eve Darian-Smith, University of California, Santa Barbara
William MacNeil, Griffith University
Shaun McVeigh, Melbourne Law School
Rebecca Scott Bray, University of Sydney

The conference theme examines questions of disciplinary, geographic, figurative and jurisdictional markings, and the organisers particularly seek contributions engaging with these issues:

Marks of Disobedience
Public Seminar

This event began the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand 2007 Conference at the Melbourne Law School

Speakers:
Julian Burnside QC
Juliet Rogers (University of Melbourne)
Patrick Wolfe (Victoria University)
Chaired by Peter Rush (University of Melbourne)

Law, society and government require agreement, assent and obedience. From this perspective, disobedience is both a violence and a deviance from the norm. It is a negation of law, something lacking in or subtracted from law. In these times of (anti)terror, speech, violence and sometimes the very presence of bodies have become the marks of disobedience. Forms of association – from the workplace to familial relations and friendship networks – become signs of national disaffection and illegality. And, to many, practices of criminalization, surveillance, policing and detention – not to mention interrogation and torture – seem both new and strangely familiar. Indeed, the state has always displayed a particular kind of marksmanship towards many, and some people have always disobeyed.

However, there is also a long tradition invoking the very lawfulness of disobedience. We stand together and with others in our disobedience of the rules of officials and the laws of the state. Communities have been forged in and need dissension and disobedience. Can we discern at work in these communities a different perspective - one that would take disobedience not so much as a breach of rules constrained by violence and habit but as a positive force in the constitution of law and society?

This forum will be a conversation about the increased impossibilities of disobedience in contemporary law and society. Each speaker will offer short comment and then engage in a conversation, with each other and the audience, about the possibilities of thinking or performing otherwise than obedient. And the forum will question whether at this time, and in this place, obedience is ever justified?

Workshop on Law and Ethnography

This workshop seeks to bring together research students and scholars interested in the study of law and legal practices from a grounded ethnographic perspective. We will discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of ethnographic research. Further, we will explore its advantages and limitations when studying today’s complex legal processes such as shifting concepts of sovereignty, transnational immigration policies, postcolonial politics, and the impact of a global political economy. The workshop welcomes all research students at the University of Melbourne – at whatever stage of their research – to come and share their ideas and work in a friendly and constructive environment.  If you wish to attend, email Amy Harrington as soon as possible.

Eve Darian-Smith is Professor of Law and Society and Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Before going to the USA to study anthropology (MA Harvard, PhD Chicago), she practised corporate law in Australia. She is interested in the intersections and connections between law, politics, and culture, and gives particular attention to racial and class discriminations, colonial and postcolonial implications, as well as the shifting concepts of sovereignty, nationalism and the nation-state in a global political economy.

UK Media Law: 2007 Update

John Battle, ITN, London
Andrew Kenyon, CMCL

This half-day seminar will be presented by John Battle, Head of Compliance at ITN, one of the world’s leading news and multi-media content companies. John is one of the most influential media lawyers in London, with extensive experience in print, broadcast and online media. He is a 2007 Research Visitor to the CMCL. This event is a rare opportunity to hear first-hand about the latest developments in UK media law from one of its key practitioners.

Join us for an overview and discussion of current practice in:

• Courts and media reporting
• Court orders in terrorist cases
• Journalists’ sources
• Investigative journalism and the law
• Copyright and fair dealing – its operation in news and sport
• The Audiovisual Media Services Directive
• Privacy, post-Zeta Jones, Campbell and Princess Caroline
• Defamation in 2007, Jameel and qualified privilege
• Ofcom regulation of prizes and competitions

The seminar in Sydney was hosted by Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Futures without Frontiers of Fuss
Ian Walden in conversation with Kim Anderson
Presented by the CMCL and International Institute of Communications Australian Chapter
Baker & McKenzie, Sydney

How has Europe been tackling the regulation of convergent media?
How will this affect international media/comms businesses in the next 5 years and beyond?
What are the learnings for Australian media/comms businesses?

This will be an informal, highly interactive and conversational lunchtime event bringing together senior people from different parts of the media and communications world – business, entrepreneurial regulatory, legal and academic. Numbers will be limited, to keep it a true conversation and allow for active discussion among the group.

Dr Ian Walden is Professor of Information and Communications Law and heads the Institute of Computer and Communications Law at Queen Mary, University of London. He was specialist advisor to the House of Lords Committee of Inquiry into the proposal to amend the European Television Without Frontiers Directive to deal with emerging, converged media, which is still the subject of complex negotiations between member states but is expected to enter national law in 2009. Ian has been involved in law reform projects for the European Commission, UNCTAD, UNECE and World Bank among others, as well as for individual states. He is a member of the European Commission’s legal Advisory Board for the Information Society Directorate-General, is trustee and vice-chair of the London-based Internet Watch Foundation and Counsel with Baker & McKenzie in London.

Kim Anderson is General Manager of Southern Cross View. She has held a range of senior roles across the Australian media including Director of Digital Sevices for the Nine Network, Director PBL Wireless and Director of Marketing and Network Services for Ninemsn.

31 July 2007

the distribution of everything: new p2p logics in production, governance, and property
Melbourne Law School: Tuesday 31 July 2007, 5.30-7.30pm
Presented by the CMCL and the The Program in Media and Communications, Faculty of Arts

Michel Bauwens
Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives

Peer to peer is much more than just the sharing of music and film by contemporary teenagers — it is in fact a new relational dynamic, enabled by P2P-based infrastructures and organisational techniques, which fundamentally change the dynamic between institutions and the peer-enabled individuals. Far from limited to the co-creation of value with corporations and media (crowd sourcing and citizen journalism), it is creating a whole new set of social processes such as peer production (Linux and Wikipedia), peer governance, and peer property.

In this seminar, Michel Bauwens will present two main scenarios of adaptation between the world of peer production and the institutional world. One where expressive individuals form weak links on corporate platforms, and create a field of tension between their needs and those of the for profit corporations, the Web 2.0 model. And another where individuals built stronger links through common projects, engaging their stronger Commons with an ecology of support from the institutional and corporate world. He will also examine the political and social consequences of a peer-enabled civil society and review three scenarios of co-existence between the market, representative democracy, and peer production.

Michel Bauwens was one of the early Belgian internet pioneers, and creator of two internet dotcom companies (KyberCo, E-Com) as well as editor-in-chief of the Flemish digital lifestyle magazine Wave, and co-maker of the TechnoCalyps documentary. Amongst his original job titles were cybrarian (British Petroleum), and European Manager of Thought Leadership (MarchFirst). In October 2002, he left his job as e-business strategy manager at Belgacom for a life in Chiang Mai, in the mountainous north of Thailand, and created the Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives, which conducts research on the peer to peer relational dynamic.

The Courts and the Media
Melbourne Law School

Hosted by the CMCL and the Australian Press Council, this conference brings together lawyers, journalists and academics involved in the operation, reporting and analysis of the courts and the media in Australia. The event will involve engagement and debate from academic commentators, judges and practising lawyers, and journalists and other media practitioners on topics including open justice, suppression orders, journalists’ sources and freedom of information.

The conference program is available.

Speakers, commentators and chairs include:
The Hon Justice Philip Cummins, Supreme Court of Victoria
Peter Gregory, Chief Court Reporter, The Age
Prue Innes, Supreme Court of Victoria
Associate Professor Andrew Kenyon, CMCL
Professor H P Lee, Australian Press Council
Michael McKinnon, Seven Network
Professor Brian Murchison, Washington and Lee University, Virginia
Associate Professor Moira Paterson, Monash University
Justin Quill, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Matthew Ricketson, Media and Communications Editor, The Age
Professor John Williams, University of Adelaide

Defamation and opinion under US and Anglo-Australian Law
The way in which Australian defamation law treats opinion has been a topic of wide media interest in 2007 — a critical restaurant review and High Court decision helped see to that. The High Court is due to consider further aspects of defamatory opinion in 2007, which makes it timely to examine the defence of honest opinion under Australia’s uniform defamation law and to consider how different countries deal with fact and opinion in defamation.

Professor Brian Murchison will examine four problems in "The Fact-Conjecture Framework in US Libel Law" related to the intent of the speaker, the context of the publication, and conjecture or hyperbole in publications. Leading senior counsel will draw out implications for Australia in light of the new honest opinion defence: Will the uniform law help opinion? In what ways will commentators be free to speak their mind? The seminar examines key issues in current defamation law and asks what can be learned from recent decisions within Australia and internationally.

This seminar was held at Allens Arthur Robinson in Sydney.

Australia and New Zealand Communication Association 2007 Conference
Melbourne Law School; Thursday 5–Friday 6 July 2007
Associated Seminar: Public Service Broadcasting in Asia-Pacific; Saturday, 7 July 2007

The ANZCA 2007 conference was be held at the Melbourne Law School and wassupported by the Media Studies Program at La Trobe University and the CMCL at the University of Melbourne. The conference theme was Communications, Civics, Industry and featured topics included: the role of public service media; new media distribution technologies in communication PR, advertising and civil society; and organisational, interpersonal and intercultural communication. There was also be a plenary panel on the Research Quality Framework.

Keynote Speakers was Professor Toby Miller (UC Riverside). The other keynote speaker, Mr Francis Herman (Former CEO, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation), was unable to attend the conference.

For further information, electronic submission and registration see the conference website. For information about the seminar Public Service Broadcasting in Asia-Pacific, please email John Tebbutt.

Making Copyright Safe for Parody and Satire
MFair dealing for the purpose of parody or satire is now allowed under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The exception seems to provide more ‘breathing space’ in the copyright system. But how will the conflicting interests of copyright owners and those seeking to rely on the new exception be reconciled? Drawing on jurisprudence from the United States, where the fair use defence is particularly accommodating of parodies, this seminar will explore possible implications of the new parody or satire exception.

Participants:
Graeme Austin, J Byron McCormick Professor of Law the University of Arizona College of Law,
will offer a US perspective on the new parody or satire exception in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).

David Brennan, Senior Lecturer, Law Faculty, The University of Melbourne, and David Caudill, Arthur M Goldberg Family Chair in Law at Villanova University, will comment.

'Know thine enemy as thyself': Discerning friendly neighbour from terrorist foe
Because of the complications of distinguishing friend and foe, security and insecurity, or even war and peace, terrorism appears to be an endemic and endless risk. The embedded nature of the terrorist risk appears to demand the treatment of one's neighbour as potentially both friend and foe. One of the consequences is the application of 'all risks' policing measures, such as stop and search powers.

Professor Clive Walker of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Leeds will explore the nature and usage of the special stop and search powers since they are key to an understanding of how 'neighbour' terrorism is now being addressed within the United Kingdom and how it might be dealt with in the future in comparable jurisdictions such as Australia.

Switching to Digital Television : UK Experience and Lessons for Digital Australia

Michael Starks is an Associate in the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford and is a leading expert in the field of digital television switchover - specifically on the policies, regulations and market conditions required for whole nations to switch fully out of analogue terrestrial and into digital TV. His professional expertise in this area is complemented now by academic research.

Not only is digital television technology more mature, but it is now much easier to visualise the whole digital switchover policy process, from launching new digital services through to analogue terrestrial switch-off. Therefore the risks of crisis and postponement can potentially be reduced. In this seminar Michael will draw on material from his book Switching to Digital Television and recent research digesting the experiences of the pioneers of digital switchover and spelling out the learning points for the next wave of countries due to follow.

An order form for Michael Stark's book, Switching to Digital Television, is available here.

CMCL Television Industry Forum
Legal Protection of Digital Broadcast Content – Technology, Copyright, Law

Sydney: 9.30am – 12.30pm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Melbourne:  6.00pm – 8.00pm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth

This seminar will outline significant issues for the future of digital television in Australia.  Drawing on important international developments and the CMCL’s own Australian research, the event will feature academic, policy and industry experts.  Participants include Chris Hibbert, who heads the DVB subgroup which is currently developing a Content Protection and Copy Management (or CPCM) system for digital television.  Chris will discuss the rationale and industry drivers behind the DVB consortium’s decision to embark on the CPCM project.  This presentation, from a leading figure in the international TV environment, offers an invaluable opportunity to Australian media, copyright and technology lawyers and media professionals.  The forum will also include reports from CMCL staff on the findings of their research into the potential impact of technological control mechanisms for digital television, and a panel of key Australian broadcasting industry representatives on specific issues arising from any proposal for protecting digital television broadcasts in the Australian context.

Passages: law, aesthetics, politics

An international conference of the Law and Literature Association of Australia
13 and 14 July 2006, University of Melbourne Law School
The conference program, list of abstracts and full text of refereed papers are now available.

Cross-Border Communications: Legal Liability and Dispute Resolution

This seminar addresses current issues in cross-border communications in a high-technology age, including key aspects of intellectual property, defamation, privacy, and private international law. Presentations will be international experts including Sam Ricketson and Richard Garnett (University of Melbourne), Graeme Austin (University of Arizona), Matt Collins (Victorian Bar), and Campbell McLachlan (Victoria University of Wellington).

19 April 2006
20 April 2006

Protecting and Exploiting Television Formats

The biggest news in TV this decade has been the rise of formatted entertainment in broadcast schedules globally.
However, as format-based programming has become so financially significant for developers, producers and channels, allegations of format theft have become ever louder and more regular. This seminar addresses some of the core legal and business issues that arise in format infringement disputes, takes a tour through recent cases from around the world, and considers what overall lessons can be learnt for protecting TV formats. Participants:
Tony Stern, Fremantle Media, UK
Andrew Stewart, Deacons
Greg Sitch, Hart & Sitch (Chair)

CMCL End of Year Seminar - Jane Ginsburg
Melbourne Law School

Professor Jane Ginsburg, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law, Columbia Law School, is a world-leader in intellectual property law.  She spoke about the US Grokster case and its implications. Professor Sam Ricketson of the Melbourne Law School acted as a commentator.

MediaCommLaw 2005
An academic conference for media and communications law teachers and researchers, with participants from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UK.
Hosted by the CMCL - Centre for Media and Communications Law
Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne

The conference included sessions on current developments in media and communications law and policy, and wider matters related to research and teaching. The program is available for your information.

The conference dinner was held on Thursday 1 December 2005 at Graduate House.

Communication Service Providers:
Criminal liability, forensics and investigation
Dr Ian Walden, Queen Mary University of London
Baker & McKenzie, Sydney

The seminar will examine the position of CSPs as providers of access and services to internet users. As intermediaries, CSPs have found themselves liable for the criminal activities of others, as well as a valuable forensic source and investigatory tool by law enforcement agencies. The seminar will examine the evolving legal framework in the UK and Europe.

Ian Walden is Head of the Institute of Computer and Communications Law and Associate Director of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. Ian teaches on four courses on the University of London 's LLM programme: Information Technology Law, Telecommunications Law, Internet Law and General Media Law. He is Course Director for the LLM in Computer and Communications Law by Distance Learning. Ian has been involved in law reform projects for the World Bank, the European Commission, UNCTAD and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, as well as for a number of individual states. In 1995-96, Ian was seconded to the European Commission, as a National Expert in electronic commerce law, and he is a member of the Legal Advisory Board to the Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission. Ian is admitted as a Solicitor to the Supreme Court of England and Wales and is a consultant to the global law firm Baker & McKenzie (www.bakernet.com) and is a Public Interest Board Member of the Internet Watch Foundation (www.iwf.org.uk ).

The Workplace Relations Reform Advertising Case:
Constitutional and Policy Perspectives on Government Advertising
Melbourne Law School

In August 2005, the ACTU and the Federal Opposition challenged the Commonwealth government’s use of public funds to advertise and promote its new workplace relations laws. This seminar brought together leading constitutional lawyers, media lawyers and political scientists to examine the constitutional and policy implications of one of the year’s most keenly awaited High Court decisions. Click here for more information .

Copyright, Digitisation & Cultural Institutions Conference 2005
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

The conference was a joint initiative of the CMCL, IPRIA, Museums Australia and a number of cultural organisations. It was hosted by the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

The Digitisation Conference was an opportunity for staff at cultural institutions to obtain practical
advice about key copyright issues relating to the digitisation of material held by cultural institutions.
The Conference also provided a forum for the launch of Guidelines aimed at assisting
staff at cultural institutions to manage these types of copyright issues. The program and presentations from some speakers are available for download from the Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Digitising Collections in Public Museums, Galleries and Libraries webpage .

Kim Weatherall's paper, 'A Comment on the Copyright Exceptions Review and Private Copying' is now available.

Melbourne:
1 March 2005

Sydney:
2 March 2005

The Chill of Defamation Law:
NZ & Australian Journalism and Law Reform

Defamation law has long been said to chill the media and public debate. While defamation law seeks to balance the public interests in reputation and free speech, the risks of defamation liability are said to deter publications. Public debate is thought to be limited by the media’s fear of lengthy, complex and expensive defamation litigation.

This seminar brings together Australian and New Zealand experts to discuss empirical research into defamation law’s chilling effect. The research has important implications for state and commonwealth proposals to reform Australian defamation law.

Speaker
Ursula Cheer
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Ursula Cheer holds a LLB (Hons) from Canterbury University, New Zealand and a Master of Laws, Cambridge University. She was admitted at Christchurch in 1982 and became a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1992.
In 1988 Ursula was appointed Speech Writer to the Minister of Justice, and in 1989 she was seconded to the Office of the Prime Minister, as Legal Adviser in the Prime Minister's Advisory Group.
Appointment as a Grade 7 Lawyer in the Lord Chancellor's Department, United Kingdom Law Commission, followed in 1991, where Ursula managed a large empirical project on personal injury damages. In 1995 she became a Lecturer in the School of Law at Canterbury University, where she teaches Torts and Contract, and specialises in Media Law.
Ursula authored the LexisNexis Laws of New Zealand Title: Media and Communication and is co-author of Media Law in New Zealand (4th ed, 1999) (5th edition forthcoming).

Commentators
Dr Andrew Kenyon, University of Melbourne (Chair)
Andrew Kenyon is Director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law in the Law School.  He researches in comparative media law, especially defamation, free speech, and electronic media regulation. This research examines social and cultural aspects of law. He also researches in art and law, particularly in copyright and the visual arts. These interests come together in his roles as editor of the refereed journal, the Media and Arts Law Review, a Network Participant in the Australian Research Council Cultural Research Network, a Board Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, and a National Council Member of Museums Australia. He has law degrees from the universities of Melbourne and London and is admitted to practise in Victoria.

Dr Matt Collins, Barrister (Melbourne)
Dr Matt Collins is a Melbourne-based Barrister practicing in all areas of commercial and media law. He is the author of The Law of Defamation and the Internet (2001), the first book to analyse systematically the application of rules of defamation to material published via the internet. The book has attracted wide acclaim in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. He is in the final stages of preparing the manuscript for the second edition, which will be released by Oxford University Press in the UK and the US later this year, and Australia shortly after that.

Andrew Stewart, Senior Corporate Counsel, Nine Network (Sydney)
Andrew Stewart is currently Senior Corporate Counsel at Nine Network Australia.  In this role he has primary conduct of all defamation matters, including pre-broadcast advice, and commercial disputes which Nine is involved in. 
Apart from being a member of the CMLC advisory board, Andrew is also Nine Networks representative on the Combined Media Law Group, which has made a number of submissions to the Commonwealth and State Attorneys General.  He has been involved in meetings with each of the Attorneys General to present the Groups position on the proposed defamation reforms.  Andrew is also a member of the NSW Law Society’s Working Party on defamation reform.
Prior to joining Nine, he worked at Gilbert & Tobin for 4 years in the media litigation, specialling in defamation, IP and IT/telecommunications related litigation.  Andrew commenced his career at Malleson Stephen Jaques in 1991.

Contempt by Publication: How to Reform the Law?

The CMCL is pleased to announce this seminar on contempt and the media. Participants include: Associate Professor Elizabeth Handsley (Flinders University), Anne Flahvin (Baker & McKenzie), Kieran Smark (Barrister), Richard Coleman (Fairfax), Ian Angus (Mallesons Stephen Jaques), Prue Innes (Supreme Court of Victoria), Richard Leder (Corrs Chambers Westgarth), The Hon Justice Philip Cummins (Supreme Court of Victoria), Andrew Kenyon (CMCL).

Melbourne
3 August 2004

Sydney
4 August 2004

Privacy Seminar
Campbell, Hosking and von Hannover - Implications for Australia

Privacy is one of the most important issues in the media's future in Australia and comparable legal jurisdictions.  This CMCL seminar explored the Australian implications of three recent decisions: Campbell v MGN Ltd (UK House of Lords), Hosking v Runting (NZ Court of Appeal), and von Hannover v Germany (European Court of Human Rights).

Keynote Speaker
Gavin Phillipson
Senior Lecturer, Department of Law and Assistant Director of the Human Rights Centre, University of Durham
Gavin's research field is broadly on the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, with a particular focus on ‘horizontal effect’, privacy, media freedom and breach of confidence. His published work has been cited with approval by both the House of Lords in Campbell and the New Zealand Court of Appeal in  Hosking v Runting.  

Commentators
Wendy Bacon, Associate Professor in Journalism, University of Technology Sydney
Wendy’s teaching areas include media law, investigative journalism, media theory and legal reporting. Before coming to UTS in 1991, Wendy worked as an investigative journalist for the The National Times, the Sun Herald, Channel Nine’s Sunday program, Sixty Minutes, and the Special Broadcasting Service’s overseas program Dateline. She won a Walkley Award for her reporting on corruption in NSW.

David Lindsay, Senior Fellow, CMCL
David Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media and Communications Law at the University of Melbourne, where he teaches Privacy Law.  He has published widely in the area of privacy law and policy.

Matthew Ricketson, Journalist and Journalism Program Coordinator, RMIT
Matthew Ricketson is a journalist and academic. He has worked as a journalist since 1981 for a range of publications  including The Age, The Australian and Time Australia magazine. He has won several awards for his journalism. He has taught at RMIT since 1993 and has run the journalism program there since 1995. Matthew has published a biography of the Australian author Paul Jennings and a book about journalism entitled Writing Feature Stories. He comments regularly on media issues for the ABC and other media outlets.

Andrew Kenyon, Director, CMCL (Chair: Melbourne Seminar)
Andrew Kenyon researches in comparative media law, especially defamation, free speech, and electronic media regulation. He also researches in art and law, particularly in copyright and the visual arts. These interests come together in his roles as editor of the refereed journal, the Media and Arts Law Review, a Board Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, and a National Council Member of Museums Australia. He has law degrees from the universities of Melbourne and London, is admitted to practise in Victoria, and his memberships include the Copyright Society of Australia, the Socio-Legal Studies Association (UK) and the Canadian Law and Society Association.

Mark O’Brien, Partner, Gilbert + Tobin (Chair: Sydney Seminar)
Mark O’Brien joined Gilbert + Tobin in 1993 as the partner responsible for media-related advice and litigation. Mark has over 20 years experience as a corporate litigator and with a number of Australia ’s most high profile individuals and corporations as clients, is seen by many – clients, peers and industry – as one of the top litigation lawyers in Australia .

Melbourne
27 May 2004

Sydney
31 May 2004

Protecting Celebrities: The Right of Publicity in the US and Australia

This seminar featured leading commentators from practice and academia, with extensive experience of celebrity deals in the US and Australia. Professor Caudill discussed US variations on the right of publicity, which is recognised in half the states under common law or statute. The US right of publicity is often seen as generous, but it has some notable limitations and Australia's protective alternatives are often as effective. Some of the US situation's complexities relate to artistic expression and free speech, commercial exploitation of celebrities, 'likeness' trademarks and consumer confusion.

Keynote Speaker
Professor David Caudill
School of Law, Washington and Lee University
Professor Caudill has an impressive publication record in the academic literature in areas including sports and entertainment law, and law and psychology. He has also represented NFL football star Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos in numerous endorsement and licensing deals.

Commentators
Eugénie Buckley, Head of Legal & Compliance, Australian Rugby Union
Eugénie Buckley was previously Head of Legal and Commercial for Rugby World Cup 2003, and the Chief Executive of the Australian Professional Footballers’ Association. Eugénie is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne where she lectures in Event Management Law and Sports Marketing Law. Eugénie has a Master of Laws in Sports Law and is the author of Sports Law: Name and Image .

Dr Matt Collins, Barrister
Dr Matt Collins is a Melbourne-based Barrister practicing in all areas of commercial and media law. He is the author of The Law of Defamation and the Internet (2001), the first book to analyse systematically the application of rules of defamation to material published via the internet. The book has attracted wide acclaim in the United Kingdom , the United States and Australia .

Kim Weatherall, Associate Director, IPRIA
Kim Weatherall is an Associate Director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA). Kim's research interests span copyright, trade mark and patent law. She has a particular interest intellectual property theory, and in the intersection between law and technology, having taught a Seminar in Internet and the Law at the University of Sydney . She has published on areas as diverse as indigenous intellectual property rights, and the file-sharing phenomenon. Kim joined Melbourne Law School after two years as a Lecturer in Commercial Law at the University of Sydney Law School. Kim has also practiced law with Mallesons Stephen Jaques in their intellectual property group in Sydney , and has studied at Oxford University and Yale University , specializing in intellectual property and property theory.

Katrina Rathie, Partner, Mallesons Stephen Jaques (Chair: Sydney Seminar)
Katrina Rathie is one of Australia 's pre-eminent intellectual property, trade practices and media lawyers.  Katrina provides strategic legal counsel to the advertising, marketing, entertainment, media and sports industries. She has been involved in negotiating celebrity advertising/endorsement deals and in legal cases involving the use or misuse of the names, images and likenesses of famous people and ‘wannabes’.  Some of these deals have included sports personalities (Ian Thorpe, Pat Rafter, Cathy Freeman), entertainers (J-Lo, Michael Jackson, Elton John), models (Cindy Crawford, Kristy Hinze), characters (Peter Rabbit, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Simpsons) and other infamous people like Martha Stewart. Katrina is a member of the New York Bar and has practised advertising and media law in the United States.

Professor Sam Ricketson, Melbourne Law School (Chair: Melbourne Seminar)

Sydney
27 April 2004

Current Issues in Broadcasting Law

The CMCL and the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA) jointly presented this outstanding seminar on broadcasting law. The event brought together speakers from the broadcasting industry, legal practice, government and academia to address important national and international issues.

Topics: the proposed WIPO Broadcasters' Rights Treaty; the High Court's Panel decision; webcasting, DRMS and free to air broadcasting.

Participants
Chris Creswell, Attorney-General's Department
Jim Thomson, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, and Television New Zealand
John MacPhail, Baker & McKenzie
Andrew Stewart, Channel Nine
Karen Gettens, Blake Dawson Waldron
Jill McKeough, University of New South Wales
Ian McGill, Allens Arthur Robinson
David Lindsay, Centre for Media and Communications Law

Melbourne
25 February 2004

Sydney
26 February 2004

Uniform Defamation Law?

Recent state law reforms and proposals by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General have revived longstanding calls for uniform Australian defamation law. But what defamation law will best serve the Australian public interest? This seminar brings together academic experts, media professionals and practising lawyers to address key issues in defamation law and litigation.

Participants
Dr Michael Gillooly, University of Western Australia
Dr Andrew Kenyon, Director, CMCL
Nic Pullen, Partner, Holding Redlich
Chris McLeod, Herald and Weekly Times
Richard Coleman, Fairfax
Michael Cameron, News Ltd
Ian Angus, Partner, Mallesons Stephen Jaques (Chair: Sydney Seminar)

Why There Will Never be a Common Law Privacy Tort

Keynote Speaker
Professor Raymond Wacks
Emeritus Professor, University of Hong Kong
Professor Wacks is one of the world’s leading commentators on privacy law. He examined issues facing common law courts in developing legal responses for the protection of privacy, including an analysis of recent English, Australian and New Zealand decisions. In particular, problems facing the courts in the context of free speech and the media were considered.

Commentator
David Lindsay, Senior Fellow, CMCL
David Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media and Communications Law at the University of Melbourne, where he teaches Privacy Law.  He has published widely in the area of privacy law and policy.

Chair
Professor Michael Bryan, Faculty of Law, The University of Melbourne.

Rendering Copyright Unto Caesar: Free Speech, Locke and the Sphere of Gift

Keynote Speaker
Professor Wendy Gordon
Professor of Law and Paul J Laicos Scholar in Law
Boston University, United States of America

Professor Gordon presented the keynote address at the combined CMCL and Australian Law and Economics Association (AustLEA) end of year celebration.

Melbourne 2003

Seminar Series
Privacy - New Issues and Policies

The CMCL hosted a series of three seminars with outstanding speakers and commentators examining current and future issues in privacy law and regulation.

1. Privacy and Freedom of Speech - Thursday 25 September
2. Privacy and Constitutions - Thursday 16 October
3. The Future of Privacy Protection - Thursday 13 November

Privacy and Freedom of Speech

Conventional thinking holds that privacy and freedom of speech inevitably conflict. Professor Barendt challenges that thinking and argues that some activities, including monitoring of the Internet, impinge on privacy and free speech. Essentially, their values go hand in hand.

Keynote Speaker
Professor Eric Barendt
Goodman Professor of Media Law, University College London

Commentators
Paul Chadwick, Victorian Privacy Commissioner
Jon Faine, ABC Radio Melbourne

Chair
Dr Andrew Kenyon, Director, CMCL

Privacy and Constitutions

What differences do constitutions make to privacy protection? As someone well versed in the practical implications of constitutions, Sir Kenneth Keith will address this question from an international and comparative perspective.

Keynote Speaker
Sir Kenneth Keith
Judge, Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and member of the International Humanitarian Fact Finding Commission

Commentators
Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia
Professor Geoff Lindell, Faculty of Law, The University of Melbourne

Chair
Professor Cheryl Saunders, Director, Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, The University of Melbourne.

A seminar organised in conjunction with the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, The University of Melbourne.

The Future of Privacy Protection

Four panellists will consider the future of privacy protection, followed by further discussion from the floor.

Panellists
David Lindsay, Senior Fellow, CMCL
Associate Professor Megan Richardson, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne,
Professor Graham Greenleaf, Baker and McKenzie Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, University of New South Wales
Mark Sneddon, Partner, Clayton Utz

Chair
Professor Sam Ricketson, Faculty of Law, The University of Melbourne