Law Commons^™

The Genographic Project: Traditional Knowledge And Population Genetics, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This article considers the debate over patent law, informed consent, and benefit-sharing in the context of biomedical research in respect of Indigenous communities. In particular, it focuses upon three key controversies over large-scale biology projects, involving Indigenous populations. These case studies are representative of the tensions between research organisations, Indigenous communities, and funding agencies. Section two considers the aims and origins of the Human Genome Diversity Project, and criticisms levelled against the venture by Indigenous peak bodies and anti-biotechnology groups, such as the Rural Advancement Foundation International. It examines the ways in which the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural …

A Right Of Resale? Indigenous Art Under The Hammer, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This week, Sotheby's sold the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri's painting, Warlugulong. The auctionhouse's spokesman, Tim Klingender, was enthusiastic about the high price commanded by the art work: "The painting was a really great painting and it deserved to make a really fantastic price, and it made that price."The painting has undergone significant appreciation over the last few decades. The significant art work was bought by the Commonwealth Bank for a mere $1,200 in 1977, and spent 20 years hanging in the canteen of the bank's Mornington Peninsula training centre. In 1996, Melbourne art dealer Hank Ebes acquired the painting for …

The New Conquistadors: Patent Law And Expressed Sequence Tags, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

The Hong Kong Amendment To The Trips Agreement: A Submission To The Joint Standing Committee On Treaties., Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

In the wake of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health 2001 and the WTO General Council Decision 2003, there is a need for industrialised nations to implement legislation to enable the export of pharmaceutical drugs to address public health concerns.I would argue that the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) should make provision for the grant of a compulsory licence over a patented invention in circumstances of ‘a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, or in cases of public non-commercial use’. Such a measure is necessary to deal with the possibility of public health epidemics that …

Copyright Laws Caught In The Web: Viacom International V Youtube, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

Back in the 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organisation promulgated internet treaties to help protect copyright owners in the digital environment. The United States passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (US) to comply with its treaty obligations; and Australia has spasmodically revised its copyright laws in 2000, 2004, and 2006 to deal with new technological developments.Such a regime has been ill-adapted to deal with a new generation of Internet services - described by the open source publisher, Tim O'Reilly, as "Web 2.0" - which have encouraged users to create, share, and remix content. The term, "Web 2.0", has been …

How To Be Alone: New Dimensions In Privacy Law, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

The book, New Dimensions in Privacy Law, has an arresting cover — a pack of paparazzi take photographs, with their flash-bulbs popping and exploding, like starbursts in the sky. The collection explores the valiant efforts of courts and parliaments to defend the privacy of individuals against such unwanted intrusions.

The American essayist and novelist, Jonathan Franzen, has reflected upon the tenuous, derelict state of privacy law:

"The right to privacy — defined by Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, in 1890, as ‘the right to be let alone’ — seems at first glance to be an elemental principle in American life. …