Professor Michael Fraser AM appointed Chairman of the Australian Copyright Council
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
The Australian Copyright Council held its AGM on 24 April 2012.
This meeting marked a change of leadership at the Council. Peter Banki has stepped down as Chairman after 26 years on the Board of the Australian Copyright Council. However, Mr Banki's association with the Council goes back much further than that, having first been employed by the Council as a legal research officer in the early 70's.
Professor Michael Fraser AM has been elected as the new Chairman of the Australian Copyright Council. Professor Fraser has been a director of the Council since 2001. He is Professor of Law and Director of the Communications Law Centre, UTS. Professor Fraser has had a distinguished career in copyright. He was a founder and CEO of Copyright Agency for over twenty years and a founding director of Australian, foreign and international copyright management organisations.
In thanking Mr Banki for his years of dedicated service to the Council and to copyright creators, Professor Fraser noted that Mr Banki had been a signatory to the Council's constitution in 1974. Professor Fraser went on to note that in those days, copyright was a boutique area of the law. Professor Fraser acknowledged Peter Banki as a “true leader in the field of copyright” and remarked on the mentorship he had provided to many in the copyright community.
This was also the first AGM for the Council's new Executive Director, Fiona Phillips. Ms Phillips joined the Council as Executive Director in February 2012 after twenty years experience advising government and the private sector on copyright law and policy issues. Ms Phillips congratulated the Council's new Board members on their election and said that she was “looking forward to working with them over the coming year”.
Full details of the Australian Copyright Council's Board are available on its website: http://www.copyright.org.au/about-us/
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