Experts tackle intellectual property rights

Copyright on the internet to monopolised sports events are some of the discussion topics for an international intellectual property rights conference at The University of Queensland next week.

From December 14-17, academics from Belgium to the Philippines will share their insights at the conference, Intellectual Property Rights, Communication and the Public Domain in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Conference organiser and Head of UQ’s School of Journalism and Communication, Professor Jan Servaes, said discussion would revolve around two angles, legal rights and ownership but also on access to free information.

Professor Servaes said this right to freely access information was under threat worldwide, which was the theme for the four-day conference at UQ’s Women’s College, St Lucia.

Speakers will talk on intellectual property rights affecting music, books to cultural identity and artworks to digital censorship, pirating and new digital copyright rules for the future.

UQ journalism law and ethics lecturer Dr Rhonda Breit will reveal how sports events are increasingly becoming monopolized by big media networks.

A team of Queensland University of Technology researchers will propose an alternate compensation systems for copyright in the digital age.

There will also be special discussions on the impact of intellectual property rights in China and in Australian indigenous communities.

Professor Servaes said this was UQ’s first conference on intellectual property rights which he hoped to make an annual series.

The conference, run jointly with the World Association for Christian Communication, is open to the public.

One day costs $50 and four days $150 which includes lunch and tea and coffee.

See the conference program at http://www.sjc.uq.edu.au/ipr/

Media: contact Professor Servaes (phone: 3365 6115, email: j.servaes@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au).