The OzDMCA: what it means for FOSS - Kimberlee Weatherall

My first session of the day (I was lucky enough to spend a big chunk of the real first one talking to Richard Weideman, the Education Programme Manager at Canonical) was recommended to me by all the local people I know at the conference - and it was as good as they said.

Unlike most people who speak on these topics at Linux / OpenSource / Free Software conferences, Kimberlee Weatherall IS a lawyer (IP) and was actively involved in the amendments to the Australian laws. The often awkward topic was presented damn clearly, with an audience pleasing touch of humour, and was both an excellent talk and depressing as hell. Short version: in order to gain a free trade agreement (FTA) with America, Australia was required to change some of its laws, especially those concerning copyright.

I’m not going to go in to details, I wouldn’t do the speaker justice, but it’s well worth reading the slides (the Rusty test alone is worth the time) and watching the video once it’s up; especially if you’re from one of the countries that’ll be signing up for a FTA in the future. This was one of the best sessions I’ve seen here.