Research Seminar - Copyright and Creativity: Is Australian Policy Hurting Creators?

Copyright and Creativity: Is Australian Policy Hurting Creators?

GUEST PRESENTER: Professor Patricia Aufderheide (Fulbright Senior Fellow 2017, Queensland University of Technology; American University)

Date: 26 May, 2017
Time: 3pm-4pm
Location: Room 601, Michie Building (#9)

Copyright is designed to promote national culture by providing incentives to creators, both through rewards to those who have already made work (copyright monopolies) and through incentives to those who are making new work to access current copyright culture (copyright exceptions/user rights). The balance between the two is the sweet spot for national culture, innovation, and creative industries. Is Australia hitting the right balance? A survey of Australian creators shows some stresses in today's copyright policy.​

Presenter:

Professor Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., and founder of the Center for Media & Social Impact, where she continues as Senior Research Fellow. She is also affiliate faculty in the School of International Service and the History department at American University, and a member of the Film and Media Arts division in the School of Communication. In 2017, she is a Fulbright Scholar at Queensland University of Technology. Her books include Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (University of Chicago), with Peter Jaszi; Documentary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford), The Daily Planet (University of Minnesota Press), and Communications Policy in the Public Interest (Guilford Press). She co-coordinates the Fair Use and Free Speech project at the Center with Prof. Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law. She has been a Fulbright and John Simon Guggenheim fellow and has served as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival. Aufderheide has received numerous journalism and scholarly awards, including the George Stoney award for service to documentary from the University Film and Video Association in 2015, a research award from the International Communication Association in 2011, Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Video (DC) in 2010, a career achievement award in 2008 from the International Digital Media and Arts Association and the Scholarship and Preservation Award in 2006 from the International Documentary Association.