The University of New South Wales

go to UNSW home page

Postgraduate Handbook

PRINT THIS PAGE
Commons and Public Rights in Intellectual Property - LAWS5239
Law Books

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Postgraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 4
 
 
EFTSL: 0.08333 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 14
 
 
Fee Band: 1 (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description

This course investigates a new area of intellectual property studies: the role of public rights (now often referred to as 'commons') and the public domain in IP (particularly in copyright, but also in patent law and other areas of IP). Although copyright law and practice is usually seen as concerning private (proprietary) rights in works, public rights in intellectual property are of vital importance to both innovation and democracy in Australia. The course will cover theories of the roles of public rights and their place in existing legislation, a detailed examination of the growth of licensing to create open content (such as Creative Commons and AESN licences), the role of public rights and open content in new business models, and the technical and policy infrastructures being developed to expand the creation and use of these public rights. The course will examine the particular position of Australia's public domain in relation to a broader international commons, and the significance of commons to the national cultural estate.

(Students wishing to extend their study of this area can also apply to enrol in 4 uoc Research Thesis Elective so as to obtain a total of 8uoc.)


LLM Specialisation

Media, Communications and Information Technology Law.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

  • Understand the significance of the changed concepts of 'public domain' and 'commons' in intellectual property, and the various roles of 'open source', 'open content' and 'open standards' in those developments;
  • Appreciate the role that compulsory licences, fair dealings, term extension and other key concepts play in the new conceptions of commons;
  • Be able to distinguish the key differences between the different types of voluntary public licences, and criticisms of each type;
  • Be familiar with some of the business models and non-financial incentives necessary for the success of voluntary licensing, and their limitations;
  • Be familiar with empirical work on quantifying commons;
  • Be able to use tools to find commons content, and understand their limitations;
  • Understand the critiques of the 'romance of the commons' and its implications for developing countries and particular disadvantaged groups

Main Topics

  • Analysing public rights - theory and taxonomy (including Statutory public rights and limits of copyright; effects of other public domains; categories of commons ; the digital divide)
  • Licences involving public rights - consistency, simplicity, effectiveness, implications
  • Technical approaches to finding works with public rights more effectively
  • Incentives and requirements to expand public use rights (incentives and voluntary measures; legislation to enhance and protect the public domain)

Assessment

Research essay or take-home assignment 4,000 words 100%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed
Required and recommended readings for each topic are listed in the Resources and Reading Guide, which is available at http://www2.austlii.edu.au/commons/ with links to online materials.

Recommended
See Prescribed Course Texts above.

Resources

See Prescribed Course Texts above.

URL for this page:

© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.