Law Futures Centre Forum: Can we fix it? A Right to Repair for Australia?

• Time 5.00 pm to 7.30 pm
• Date Wednesday 5 February 2020
• Location QCA (S05) 2.04 | South Bank campus

About the forum

From phones and fitbits to fridges and cars, consumers are buying more and more ‘smart’ consumer goods. Yet by denying consumers the ability to repair these goods, manufacturers of ‘smart’ goods are challenging, and even undermining, the very notion of physical ownership. More broadly too, the (in)ability to repair ‘smart’ consumer goods is contributing to the increasing problem of product obsolescence and e-waste which is inhibiting Australia’s environmental sustainability.

Globally, there has been a groundswell of support from consumers, repairers, environmentalists and designers for a ‘Right to Repair.’ The US and EU have already introduced ‘Right to Repair’ schemes into their laws. While Australia does not have ‘Right to Repair’ legislation, there is increasing interest in a ‘Right to Repair’ for Australia as this would both benefit Australian consumers and improve Australia’s environmental sustainability. …

Research Symposium

5 September 2017

Climate Change, Capitalism and Corporations

Please join members of the Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program for a half-day workshop.

This event is a research workshop focused upon the role of corporations in respect of climate change. The various speakers will consider how managers and corporations interpret and respond to the climate crisis. Professor Christopher Wright from the University of Sydney will give a keynote speech on the ‘Climate Crisis, Corporate Imaginaries and Creative Self-Destruction’. …

QUT Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program

Research Symposium

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

12:00 pm — 2:30 pm AEST

Presenters in this symposium will explore the social, financial, and legal debates regarding the rise of divestment movements around public health, climate change and asylum seeker detention centres.

In the field of public health, there has been a push to encourage governments, pension funds, and superannuation to divest from tobacco companies. Similarly, in the area of environment and climate change, the fossil fuel divestment movement has come to the fore. In the field of human rights, there is interest in the use of divestment strategies as a means to disrupt investment in companies profiting from offshore detention centres. …

Research Symposium, QUT Faculty of Law, 29 October 2020

QUT Faculty of Law

Thursday, 29 October 2020

10:00am to 3:00pm

Z1064, Gibson Room, Level 10, Z Block

QUT Gardens Point Campus

OVERVIEW

This event will focus upon copyright law and the creative industries. It will bring together legal scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners; creative artists from an array of disciplines; as well as theorists of new media and digital technologies. To begin with, this event will consider the origins of copyright law, policy, and practice. …

Matthew Rimmer

With a Senate inquiry holding a public hearing earlier this week, and delicate negotiations between stakeholders recently revealed to have been ongoing since June last year, now seems like a good time to examine the legal issues behind the decades of dispute surrounding the copyright and licensing arrangements for the Aboriginal flag.

The flag was created by Luritja artist Harold Thomas, who first asserted his right to be recognised as its creator in 1980. It had been seen at protests around Canberra as early as 1971.

In 1995, it was proclaimed as an official flag of Australia. As the National Museum of Australia has noted, “the Aboriginal Flag is recognised locally and internationally as a symbol of Indigenous pride and the continuing struggle for justice”. …

Research Symposium, QUT Faculty of Law, 29 July 2020

Overview

This event will consider the relationship between intellectual property and higher education in the age of the public health crisis over the coronavirus COVID-19. It will bring together scholars, experts, and practitioners in law, business, and education, and examine this topic from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

Universities and educational institutions will play a key role in our local, national, and global response to the public health crisis of the coronavirus COVID-19. Professor John Shine — the President of the Australian Academy of Science — has stressed: ‘As a repository of knowledge, networks, infrastructure and smart, agile people, university science has the capacity to address global challenges.’ Shine suggests: ‘People trained by university science and working within the research sector are the people whose expertise will deliver on this global challenge.’ …

QUT News, 9th July 2020

Major publishing houses including HarperCollins and Penguin are suing the non-profit Internet Archive for its National Emergency Library, set up to provide access to books during the COVID-19 shutdown. The Authors Guild has supported the publishers’ copyright action.

• The non-profit Internet Archive set up the temporary National Emergency Library during shutdown to give access to books for researchers and students
• Major publishers, supported by the Authors Guild are now suing Internet Archive for copyright infringements
• This dispute is a test case for copyright law’s role during a pandemic
• International support for Internet Archive and its emergency…

QUT News, 24th June 2020

While the Trump administration trumpets Operation Warp Speed’s search for COVID-19 vaccine, it is unwilling to collaborate with the world’s scientists who share their COVID-19 findings and have pledged to make a vaccine affordable and accessible for everyone.

• The US out of step with global collaboration on COVID-19 vaccine
• WHO has set up a global collaboration to speed up development of vaccine & treatments
• Some pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies unwilling to join global initiatives
• Strong push from Australia, NZ and Germany’s leaders to make COVID-19 vaccine affordable & accessible to all
• Many countries will use compulsory licensing or ‘crown use’ laws to make vaccine universally…