November 1999, Taronga Centre, Sydney 1. Thank you for your invitation to speak today about the challenges for copyright law in the 21st century. The media recently reported on the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is one of the most important annual events in the book publishing industry. The significant feature of this year's Book Fair was that, for the first time, digital books were integrated into the main display alongside paper books. This change reflects an important mindshift.
Digital publishing is no longer a niche.
It has become part of the publishing mainstream, and publishers are positioning themselves to take advantage of the emerging online markets. Australians have welcomed the information technology revolution. This is reflected in the strong consumer demand for online shopping. Intellectual property products are consistently the most traded products online. The most recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the top 3 products bought online by Australians are books, computer software and music.