Professor Michael Fraser
Director, Communications Law Centre, Faculty of Law
Professor, Faculty of Law
BA (Hons) (Syd U), LLB (Hons) (UTS)
Email: Michael.Fraser@uts.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9514 9941
Fax: +61 2 9514 9685
Room: CH01.03.301A (map)
Mailing address: PO Box 123,
Broadway NSW 2007,
Australia
Biography
Michael Fraser is Professor of Law and Director of the Communications Law Centre, 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. He has influenced change in copyright and commerce for creators and the content industries, as well as media and communications policy in the public interest. Michael has pioneered new digital content delivery, e-commerce business models and value adding virtual supply chains for content and rights. He contributes to government policy development and is an international speaker. Michael is Chairman of Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), Chairman of the Australian Copyright Council, President of the International PEN - Sydney Centre, Chairman of the Stolen Generations Testimonies Foundation and a director on the boards of the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, the Australian Copyright Council, a Member of the Telephone Information Services Standards Council and a Member of the Steering Committee for the Review of the Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code.
Professional
• Chairman of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) (2010 - present)
• Director of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) (2009 - present)
• President of PEN International - Sydney Centre (2011 - present)
• Vice - President of Sydney PEN Centre (2009 - 2011)
• Member of the Telephone Information Services Standards Council (August 2010 - present)
• Member of the Steering Committee for the Review of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code - Communications Alliance (July 2010 - present)
• Director of the Stolen Generations Testimonies Foundation (July 2010 - present)
• Board of the Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney (2009 -present)
• Director of Australian Copyright Council (2001 to Present)
• Founding Director of Centre for Copyright Studies (1995 to 2008)
• Vice President of International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organisation (IFRRO) (since 1991, Director since 2001 to 2007)
• Chair of the Membership Committee of IFRRO (1994 - 2007)
• Chair of the Asia Pacific Committee of IFRRO (1994 - 2007)
• Director of the International Digital Object Identifier Foundation (2002 to 2005)
• Director of the Arts Law Centre (1997 - 2003)
• A Founding Director of the Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce Framework Company UK (1998 to 2001)
• Director of the Hong Kong Reprographic Rights Licensing Society Ltd (1995 - 2001)
• Director of the Australian Copyright Society (1995 to 2000)
• Director of the Australian National Book Council (1991 to 1995)
• Chairman of the Australian National Book Council (1995 to 1998)
• Chairman of the Australian National Book Council (1995 to 1998)
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (since 1995)
• Member of the Law Council of Australia
• Member of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand Inc. since 1989
• Member of the Australian Copyright Society
• Member of the Computer and Media Law Association
Teaching areas
• Copyright Law
• Copyright Licensing
• Communications and Media Law
• Digital Content and e-commerce
Research
Research interests
• Broadcast regulation
• Defamation
• Libraries and Knowledge Management
• Access to Content and Digital rights management
• Access to Indigenous cultural productions
• Privacy
• Media ownership
• Telecommunications regulation
Research supervision: Yes
Publications
Research books chapters
Fraser, M.H. 2012, 'Intellectual property and digital libraries' in Chowdhury, GG; Foo, S (eds), Digital Libraries and Information Access: Research Perspectives, Facet Publishing, United Kingdom, pp. 179-191.
Fraser, M.H. 2012, 'Regulating knowledge as intellectual property in the global knowledge economy' in Fenwick, T; Farrell, L (eds), Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research: Politics, languages and responsibilities, Routledge, Oxon, UK, pp. 169-184.
Book chapters
Arnott, J., Fraser, M.H. & Strong, B. 2009, 'Internet Law' in Fallon, M (eds), The law handbook: Your practical guide to the law in New South Wales 11th edition, Thomson Reuters, Sydney, pp. 851-866.
Fraser, M.H. 2008, 'Australia' in Copyright Throughout the World, Thomson Reuters, Minnesota, USA, pp. 3-1-3-124.
Refereed journal articles
Brennan, D. & Fraser, M.H. 2012, 'Topics of interest: Use of subject matter with missing owners - Australian copyright policy options', Australian Intellectual Property Journal, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 4-18.
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This is a paper which puts forward copyright reform options to address the problem of missing or not locatable copyright owners. This is often referred to as the orphan works problem. One reform addresses natural person users of unpublished subject matter whose purposes are non-commercial; the other addresses all users of published subject matter. This paper also makes the suggestions that copyright reform targeted at the facilitation of mass digitisation and reuse projects should be separately resolved as a question of public policy, and that perpetual copyright terms for unpublished subject matter should be abolished.
Chowdhury, G.G. & Fraser, M.H. 2011, 'Carbon footprint of the knowledge industry and ways to reduce it', World Digital Libraries, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9-18.
View/Download from: UTSePress
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The current practices of content creation, access, and super distribution followed by the global content industry are neither economically not environmentally sustainable. Such research studies on the carbon footprint of the content industry are few and far between, adequate data are not available. This paper shows that the current practices in the production of printed content produce a massive carbon footprint. It is argued that these emissions can be significantly reduced by developing a digital content supply network. Features of a digital content network are briefly discussed along with an indication of how this can help reduce carbon footprint of information services. This paper also points out areas of further research in this direction.
Fraser, M.H. 2011, 'The Hargreaves' Report: Why is copyright reform so hard?', Copyright Reporter: Journal of the Copyright Society of Australia, vol. 29, no. 1&2, pp. 40-54.
View/Download from: UTSePress
Refereed conference papers
Fraser, M.H. 2011, 'Copyright in the Connected Digital World', Sydney, November 2011 in Communications Policy and Research Forum, ed Papandrea, F; Armstrong, M, Network Insight Pty Ltd, Sydney, pp. 27-32.
Conference papers
Fraser, M.H. 2010, 'Towards the Conceptual Model of a New Knowledge Infrastructure', Globalizing Academic Libraries Vision 2020, Delhi, India, October 2009 in Globalizing Academic Libraries Vision 2020, ed Delhi University Library System, Mittal Publications, New Delhi, India, pp. 221-228.
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Legal and business frameworks for the content industry are discussed in this paper on the premise that the prevailing business model is unsuitable for meeting consumer demands in today's digital world. Proposed that a new know/edge infrastructure and a virtual content supply chain will benefit content creators and consumers alike, and will at the same time reward every stakeholder, who adds value, in the content supply chain. The new knowledge infrastructure will create a generic model for one-stop access to all kinds of content - copyright. out of-copyright and public-domain copyright-free Creative Commons.
Reports
Fraser, M.H., Barnes, S.R. 2010, 'Consumers First: Smart Regulation for Digital Australia', Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), Sydney, Australia, pp. 1-66.
View/Download from: UTSePress
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This paper investigates principles-based regulation and whether or not it should be adopted as an appropriate regulatory framework for consumer protection in Australian digital communications. It argues that principles-based regulation is superior to rules-based regulation because it gives each business the flexibility to meet regulatory obligations in the most efficient way while also empowering the regulator to playa more effective role in ensuring consumer protection in a fast moving sector. Such an approach helps consumers by making their welfare, rather than compliance with a set of rules, the focus of regulation and helps business by focusing regulation on outcomes rather than detailed regulatory procedures.
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