I was attracted to the Conference by the promise of hearing Professor Lawrence Lessig but by the end of Day 1 my head was spinning.

Here is my snapshot (I am responsible for errors or omissions).

Justice Ronald Sackville of the Federal Court of Australia gave the welcome address: He noted that Australia’s copyright term was now the same as USA’s (ie 70 years from the author’s death) as a result of the passage of the US FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT 2004. He also noted that criminal penalties of up to 5 years could now be imposed summarily for conspiring to breach copyright. He gave a brief explanation of the forces behind copyright law (economic intersts, international treaty obligations, technological changes) and refrred briefly to limits on copyright law eg competition law.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald of QUT  introduced the theme of allowing access to and reusing of work (sharing/collaborating) by controlling its downstream use (but not giving away rights). He gave the backbround to the iCommons project in Australia.

Professor Lawrence Lessig gave an inspiring  presentation  ranging from free culture to creative commons and copyright to DRM technology with great use of multimedia.

It was in question time that a theme for the day arose: what was in Creative Commons for struggling artists (earning less than AUD$14,000 a year)?

After the first break, Neeru Paharia from Creative Commons San Francisco explained the CC licence and gave a rundown on its practical uses.

Ian Oi from Blakes gave a legal view on the Australian licence. Discussion ensued about moral rights and indigenous issues (repeated later in the day).

After lunch Richard Neville chaired a panel (filmmaker, composer/administrator, business services) on the creative industry’s views. Richard Jones said filmmakers were generally sceptical of Creative Commons and were particularly concerned about the use that was made of their work (query whether text and multimedia creators react differently particularly since filmmakers are forced to assign their rights to get the film produced and have to deal with other complex issues?)

Judge Sackville observed that since Creative Commons is voluntary, people should not read too much into it for the future of copyright.

(Someone) commented that CC helps people think about what they are giving away and why?

In the final session John Quiggin introduced a panel on 2 different projects by discussing networking and social capital: one case study is actually running (ACRO) and the other is still being researched (Youth Internet Radio Network) but represented by 2 enthusiastic developers including one who enthused about disruptive technology.

A fascinating day!!