Vera Franz is Program Manager at the Open Society Institute's Information Program ( www.soros.org/ip since November 2001, heading the Programs on Internet Law & Policy as well as Intellectual Property Rights. In parallel, she has been lecturing a course on 'Media, Technologies, and Globalisation' at the Department of Communications at Salzburg University, Austria. Previously, she was affiliated with the Austrian Techno-Z R&D Institute, researching information market developments for the European Commission. She has lived in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, running Internet projects for local non-governmental organisations. Vera holds a Masters in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and a MagPhil in Political Science at Salzburg University, Austria.
Artist and Co-Founder of Canadian based copyright advocacy group 'Appropriation Art: A Coalition of Art Professionals,' Denman Island, British Columbia, Canada
Doctor in Law, Professor at the University of Namur (Belgium), Head of the Department of Intellectual Property Rights at the Research Center for Computer and Law, the University of Namur & Project Lead Creative Commons Belgium, Namur