[plug] Intellectual Property

[Christian]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2000 at 09:44:31AM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
 
> As an aside, I think that it is unfortunate, that such topics as this,
> are not covered in most university degrees that train people to do
> professional work. To me, ethics and some intellectual property law, and
> duty of fidelity, should be included in some generic third year unit,
> across all degrees, with a name like "Professional Development", or,
> "Preparation for Professional Employment", or something. It would help a
> university prepare its graduates for professional employment. This is
> the kind of thing which universities, that award professional
> qualifications, should include in their degree courses, as mandatory
> units. I would be interested to see Christian's response to that...

Not really sure why you're interested in my response but here goes...  

Have you asked for such a unit?  I think the reason there isn't one is
probably that you couldn't fill an entire unit with that material.  But
it wouldn't be a bad idea for it to be included as a topic or two in a
"Foundation" type course (of which Murdoch is the only uni which has
them).  Perhaps you should suggest it?

Murdoch also provides a bunch of "general skills" workshops for
postgraduates and I think one or two of them touch upon these topics but
obviously these aren't accessable to most people.

<plug>
I've only just managed to get Murdoch to consider including a course on
computer security (which I think is even more important than the above).
All going to plan it'll be running second semester 2001 as a third year
unit.  Any Murdoch students who are interested please visit:

	http://stallman.murdoch.edu.au

If you're interested (and a Murdoch student etc.), please register
otherwise the unit won't go ahead.  If you know anyone who might be
interested then please let them know too.
</plug>

Regards,

Christian.