Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 24 September
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
The digital revolution is counter-intuitive to copyright. Technological change is moving too fast for adequate laws to be implemented – and for affected industries to keep pace.
The bottom is dropping out of the Hollywood box office, while television stations are being hammered by free-falling ratings for blockbuster shows (think: Homeland). We’re watching in droves, but many of us are not paying for what we watch, and we’re too impatient to wait for traditional delivery systems.
Meanwhile, in book publishing, the e-revolution is seeing the boom of digital publishing – and pirated books. Will it go the way of the music industry?
With such open access to information these days, how do we know where one person’s work ends and another begins? Is the very idea of intellectual property becoming a nonsense – or is it too important to give up on, for the continuing functioning of the arts and the sciences? And – the million-dollar question – how can we ensure creativity continues to pay?
In this debate, chaired by Wheeler Centre director Michael Williams, our speakers will consider the obstacles and opportunities ahead.
Speaking for the proposition:
· Angela Daly has ten years of experience in academia, activism and policy-making concerning law and communications technologies. She is Research Fellow in the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, a member of Electronic Frontiers Australia’s board, and is finalising her PhD at the European University Institute.
· Simon Groth is the director of if:book Australia at the Queensland Writers Centre, and writes regularly on the future of the book. He is also an author of fiction and short stories, and the lead writer for the 24-Hour Book project.
· Dr Suelette Dreyfus is an award-winning writer and journalist. In addition to writing the first major book about computer hacking in Australia, she was the Associate Producer of a documentary about hackers. Her articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers in Australia and abroad. She is a Research Fellow at an Australian university, where she runs several major research projects in information systems.
Speaking against the proposition:
· Professor Michael Fraser AM is Professor of Law and Director of the Communications Law Centre at UTS. He was a founder and CEO of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) for twenty one years, and a founding director of Australian, foreign and international copyright management organisations.
· Lori Flekser is the executive director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation, and the general manager of the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
· Elmo Keep is a writer, broadcaster and producer whose writing has been published widely, and whose work appeared on three series of ABC TV’s Hungry Beast. She has also worked as a digital media producer with Zapruder’s other films, is currently The Lifted Brow’s Digital Director.
Tweet at this event: #iq2oz
Intelligence Squared Debates
The Wheeler Centre and St James Ethics Centre combine again in 2013 to bring you a brand new series of Intelligence Squared debates.
Established in 2002, IQ2 has spread across the globe, bringing the traditional form of Cambridge and Oxford Unions-style debating – with two sides proposing and opposing a sharply formed motion – to Melbourne Town Hall.
Featuring
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...
Simon Groth
Simon Groth’s stories can go anywhere, from tangled relationships and virtual writers to rock music and sleep disorders. His first two novels were shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and his short fiction has been published in Australia and the US.
Simon was co-editor with Sean Sennett of Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press, published by UQP. As director of if:book Australia at the Queensland Writers Centre, Simon writes regularly on the future of the book and took the role of lead writer for the 24-Hour Book.
Michael Fraser
Professor Michael Fraser was a founder of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) and CEO for 21 years, as well as a founding director of Australian, foreign and international copyright management organisations. He is chairman of the Australian Copyright Council.
Professor Michael Fraser AM is a Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney and director of the Communications Law Centre (CLC), UTS, Australia’s independent, non-profit, public interest centre specialising in communications, media and online law and policy.
Professor Fraser is chairman of the Stolen Generations Testimonies Foundation, president of International PEN - Sydney Centre and a director of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN).
Lori Flekser
Lori Flekser has worked in the Australian film and television industry since 1982. She is the General Manager of the Motion Picture Distributors Association, the Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation, and the Co-Chair of the Australian International Documentary Conference.
Her production experience encompasses a wide range of genres: documentary specials and series, reality TV and corporate videos, as well as feature films and telemovies.
In 2003, Lori joined the AFC, the federal government funding agency and was promoted to Director of Development, supporting the development and production of feature films, documentaries, short films and digital media projects.
Lori was appointed General Manager of the Motion Picture Distributors Association in 2010, representing the major Australian film distributors. In July 2012 she also took on the Executive Director role for the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF), a not-for-profit organisation committed to educating people about the value of screen content and the impact of piracy.
Lori is a recent graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Suelette Dreyfus
Suelette Dreyfus is a Research Fellow in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne. She is the Principal Researcher on the World Online Whistleblowing Survey, and part of an international team looking at the impact of technology on whistleblowing about wrongdoing.
Her interests include privacy technologies and how they affect the balance of between the State and the Citizen. She is the author of Underground, which has been translated into 7 languages. Prior to entering academia, she was a journalist with the Age and The Independent.
Elmo Keep
Elmo Keep is a writer and broadcaster working across print, television and online.
Her writing has been published in The Rumpus, The Awl, Meanjin, The Big Issue, Rock’s Back Pages, The Hairpin, and elsewhere where she covers music, web culture and travel, and profiles musicians including Slash, Bono, Gene Simmons, Lars Ulrich, Patti Smith, Henry Rollins and many others.
She recently finished work on the third series of ABC TV’s Hungry Beast and as digital media producer for Zapruder’s other films in Sydney.
She lives in Ballarat, Victoria.
Angela Daly
Angela Daly has ten years of experience in academia, activism and policy-making concerning the law, ethics and communications technologies. She is currently a research fellow in the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, a member of Electronic Frontiers Australia’s board, and is finalising her PhD at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy.
In early 2012, Angela was a visiting researcher in the Law School at Stanford University, California. She has worked at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, Ofcom in London, and with European Alternatives and the British Council on projects concerning young people and communications technologies in Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.
Angela has an MA in Jurisprudence from Balliol College, University of Oxford, an LLM in French and European Law from the Universite de Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and an LLM in Comparative, European and International Law from the EUI.