The Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project, together with the U.S. Library of Congress National Digital Information, Infrastructure and Preservation Program, the U.K. Joint Information Systems Committee and the SURFfoundation in The Netherlands, released their International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation at the WIPO International Workshop on Digital Preservation and Copyright in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 July 2008.

Founded by Prof Lawrence Lessig in 2001 and publishing its initial licences in December 2002, to counter “a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful or of creators of the past”, Creative Commons (CC – creativecommons.org) is now a global phenomenon. Creative Commons Australia (CCau – creativecommons.org.au) is one of forty-three countries involved in the initiative, with another nineteen potential member nations currently being developed.

Copyright law, digital content and the Internet in the Asia-Pacific provides a unique insight into the key issues facing copyright law and digital content policy in a networked information world.

The production of knowledge has become central to economic life. Competitiveness in the 21st century market place is now characterized by the ability to translate scientific and technological knowledge into innovation. But does this render cultural and social knowledge unimportant?

The question of access to and re-use of materials produced by government and other publicly funded bodies has emerged as an important issue in recent years.

This article seeks to highlight the unique and fundamental interaction between the legal notion of providing permission to reproduce or communicate copyright content (copyright licensing) and the building of open user generated online communities such as ccMixter and Flickr.

Book chapters

Suzor, N. and Fitzgerald, B., ‘The Role of Open Content Licences in Building Open Communities: Creative Commons, GFDL and Other Licences’ in C. Kapitzke (ed), Rethinking Intellectual Property (2007) Sense Publishing

Articles
Fitzgerald, A., Fitzgerald, B. and Coates, J., 'Creative Commons Licensing and the Re-Use of Public Sector or Government Copyright Material: The Australian Experience', iCommons Annual 2007, iCommons, July 2007

Published by the Sydney University Press, this book draws on papers presented at the QUT conference of the same name, which took place in January, 2005. It provides a snapshot of the thoughts of over 30 Australian and international experts on topics surrounding the international Creative Commons movement, from the landmark Eldred v Ashcroft copyright term decision to the legalities of digital sampling in a remix world.