Returning to Australia after more than a decade in the United Kingdom, Daniela Simone has recently joined the Macquarie Law School where she hopes to further her research focusing on the intersection between law, technology, and culture.

What is your background and what brought you to Macquarie?
I have just returned to Australia after more than a decade in the United Kingdom. Prior to moving abroad, I completed an Arts/Law degree at the University of Sydney and worked at a large commercial law firm in Sydney. In 2007, I decided to move to the UK for postgraduate studies where I completed BCL, MPhil and DPhil degrees at the University of Oxford. After finishing my doctorate, I joined University College London as a Lecturer in 2015 and for the last four years I have been Co-Director of UCL’s Institute of Brand and Innovation Law.

When the pandemic hit, the pull home to Sydney became even stronger and as a scholar with a deep interest in interdisciplinarity, Macquarie was a perfect fit!

What has your recent research involved?
My research focuses on the intersection between law, technology, and culture. My book, Copyright and Collective Authorship: Locating the Authors of Collaborative Work (Cambridge University Press, 2019) investigates how copyright law regulates collaborative authorship. This is an area of the law that is fraught with uncertainty. Yet, it is an issue of great importance to our information economy. My book begins with an analysis and critique of the messy strands of existing case law on joint authorship. Then, I explore four case studies (Wikipedia, Australian Indigenous art, Science and Film) that draw upon a broad range of scholarship on how collaboration is understood and regulated in different contexts. These case studies reveal interdisciplinary insights that can enrich legal understandings of the creative process. Ultimately, I argue that copyright law needs to take an inclusive approach that ensures all eligible creators can claim the rewards of copyright (historically non-dominant contributors have tended to be side-lined). I also argue that it is important for the law to be applied contextually, so that copyright rules can adapt to different creative settings.

How did you originally become interested in your area of research, and what keeps you interested in it?
I have always been interested in creativity, culture, and new technology. Looking back, I can see that the initial seeds that would grow into research interests were planted back in my undergraduate days. At Law School, I was struck by the differences between how copyright law conceptualises the creative process and the view of creativity that emerged in the humanities scholarship I studied for my Arts degree. When I revisited this thought during my graduate studies, I discovered that this mismatch was particularly evident in the treatment of collaborative creativity and that copyright law was looking increasingly creaky in the face of the challenges of the digital age.

I am very fortunate to be researching in the area of intellectual property law. We live in an information age. Intellectual property law is the primary way in which we regulate the intangible property created and shared across the digital space and, as such, it is integral to the fabric of our daily life. The challenges of digital technology are so varied that there are always new and interesting problems to explore!

What would people be surprised to know about you or your work?
I have spent a year and a half living in France. This was one of the most enriching experiences of my life and it has given me an enduring appreciation of French language, culture and, naturally, their wine and cheese! People might also be surprised to know that there is a link between my work and the film Florence Foster Jenkins (starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant). My book was recently cited by the English and Welsh Court of Appeal in a case concerning a dispute about the authorship of the screenplay to this film. It was heartening to see this work have some real-life impact.

What is on your agenda for 2021?
Three items are on my agenda for 2021. First, I hope to continue to expand my academic network and to build interdisciplinary collaborations which can provide new perspectives on how the law regulates complex creative processes. Second, I will be working on the challenges which artificial intelligence poses for copyright law (e.g. can artificial intelligence ‘author’, and therefore own, copyright in an artwork or a piece of music?). Finally, I am interested in the promises and perils of using intellectual property frameworks to protect privacy interests (especially in the context of the collection, use and sale of data).