Brian Fitzgerald is an Australian legal academic and barrister. He is an

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

and information technology/internet lawyer who has pioneered the teaching of internet/

cyber law Information technology law (IT law), also known as information, communication and technology law (ICT law) or cyberlaw, concerns the juridical regulation of information technology, its possibilities and the consequences of its use, including comp ...

in Australia. Fitzgerald was a specialist research professor at the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

(QUT) until February 2012, when he became the inaugural executive dean of law at the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamation ...

's Faculty of Law and Business.

Education and career

Fitzgerald studied arts at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

and law at the

, graduating with first-class honours, and as University Medallist in Law, before going on to postgraduate study at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

(BCL),

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(LLM) and

(PhD). In 1998 he was named as QUT Law Faculty's Alumnus of the Year. From 1998 to 2002, Fitzgerald was head of the

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for bec ...

and Justice at

Southern Cross University Southern Cross University (SCU) is an Australian public university, with campuses at Lismore and Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales, and at Coolangatta, the most southern suburb of the Gold Coast in Queensland. In 2019, it was ranke ...

, and from 2002 to 2007 he was head of the School of Law at QUT. Since March 2012 he has been the executive dean of law at the

, based in Melbourne. Fitzgerald is a chief investigator and program leader for law in the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

Centre of Excellence on Creative Industries and Innovation. He is also the project leader of Creative Commons Australia an
Peer to Patent Australia
and is member of th
Access to and Use of Public sector Information (auPSI)
project. He was project leader for the Open Access to Knowledge Law (OAK Law) Project studying legal protocols for

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

for the Australian research sector, and for th
Legal Framework for e-Research Project
Legal Strategies for Streamlining Collaboration in an e-Research World
/ref> His current projects include work on intellectual property issues across the areas of copyright, digital content and the internet, copyright and the creative industries in China,

open content Free content, libre content, libre information, or free information is any kind of creative work, such as a work of art, a book, a software, software program, or any other creative Media (communication), content for which there are very minimal ...

licensing and the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

, research use of patents, patent informatics administration licensing,

Science Commons Science Commons (SC) was a Creative Commons project for designing strategies and tools for faster, more efficient web-enabled scientific research. The organization's goals were to identify unnecessary barriers to research, craft policy guideline ...

, e-research, licensing of digital entertainment and

anti-circumvention Anti-circumvention refers to laws which prohibit the circumvention of technological barriers for using a digital good in certain ways which the rightsholders do not wish to allow. The requirement for anti-circumvention laws was globalized in 1996 ...

law. Professor Fitzgerald was a member of the Government 2.0 Taskforce set up by the Australian Government in 2009. This taskforce produced its report
"Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0"
in December 2009. Fitzgerald has been featured in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', ''The Science Show'', and ''The Law Report'' discussing copyright related legal issues.

Books

* ''Internet and Ecommerce Law, Business and Policy'' (2011) * ''Cyberlaw: Cases and Materials on the Internet, Digital Intellectual Property and E Commerce'' (2002) * ''Jurisdiction and the Internet'' (2004) * ''Legal Issues Relating to Free and Open Source Software'' (2004) * ''Intellectual Property in Principle'' (2004) * ''Internet and Ecommerce Law'' (2007) * ''Games and law: History, content, practice and law'' (2007) * ''Copyright Law, Digital Content and the Internet in the Asia Pacific'' (2008) * ''Legal Framework for e-Research: Realising the Potential'' (2008) * ''Going Digital 2000'' (2000)

Footnotes

External links

Brian Fitzgerald profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Brian Living people 20th-century Australian lawyers Harvard Law School alumni Australian legal scholars Computer law scholars Copyright scholars Australian copyright law Queensland University of Technology alumni Academic staff of Queensland University of Technology Academics from Brisbane Alumni of the University of Oxford Griffith University alumni Academic staff of Southern Cross University Members of the Creative Commons board of directors People from Rockhampton Academic staff of the Australian Catholic University Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian lawyers

Education and career

Books

See also

Footnotes

External links