Rate My Professor Wellett Potter

Dr Wellett Potter is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, University of New England (UNE), Armidale. A proud UNE alumna, she holds a BA(Music)/LLB(Hons I) and PhD in Law from UNE, conferred in March 2021. Her PhD thesis, ‘A Legal Exploration of the Copyright Protection of Databases in the Fourth Industrial Era’ (2020), examined intellectual property issues in the digital age. Her honours thesis, ‘Illegal Harmony: Discord Between the Practice of Music-Borrowing and Australian Music Copyright Law’ (2010), is available from the UNE law library. Prior to her full-time appointment in 2022, she served eleven years as a sessional academic, contributing to over 25 law units.

Potter's research specializations include copyright law, intellectual property, technology law, artificial intelligence, music and IP, and biotechnology. Her work addresses AI-driven creativity's impact on Australian copyright, limits of copyright for digital replicas such as voice clones and deepfakes, personality-rights protections for identity harms, originality, authorship and ownership in generative AI including ChatGPT outputs and AI-generated music, training data governance, industry data deals, and ramifications for creators, using case studies like Taylor Swift’s ‘Taylor’s Version’ re-recordings on intellectual property, contracts, moral rights and artistic control. Extending earlier focus on database copyright, remix culture, music borrowing, mash-ups, NFTs and virtual assets, her scholarship combines doctrinal and comparative analysis with law-reform orientation. Key peer-reviewed publications comprise forthcoming articles: ‘An Analysis Of The Limits Of Australian Copyright In Relation To Digital Replicas - Voice Clones & Deepfakes’ (2025); ‘Australian Copyright’s New Frontier: Exploring Originality, Authorship And Ownership In The Age Of Generative AI Through The Lens Of ChatGPT Content’ (2025); ‘What Taylor Swift can teach us about copyright, contracts and moral rights: The story of ‘Taylor’s Version’ from an intellectual property perspective’. Other publications include ‘Pedestrians’ rights in the time of the e-scooter: What happened to the ‘foot’ in footpath?’ (2022, with C.N. Radavoi) and ‘How Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Challenge Australian Copyright Law’ (2022). She shares insights via The Conversation, media and conferences, chairs the School of Law’s First-Year Committee, edits Law School Student Essentials, serves on AI and engagement committees, and supervises higher-degree research students. She teaches Intellectual Property Law (LAW323/LLM523), Foundations of Law (LAW100) and Fundamentals of Australia’s Common Law System (LLM533).