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Aplin, Tanya --- "Review of Fitzgerals, A. Fitzgerald, B., Cook, P. and Cifuentse, C. (eds), Going Digital: Legal Issues for Electronic Commerce, Multimedia and the Internet, (Prospect Media Pty Ltd, 1998)" [1999] DigTechLawJl 10; (1999) 1(2) Digital Technology Law Journal 10

Review of Fitzgerald, A., Fitzgerald, B., Cook, P. and Cifuentes, C. (eds), Going Digital: Legal Issues for Electronic Commerce, Multimedia and the Internet, (Prospect Media Pty Ltd, 1998).

Tanya Aplin
Senior Research Fellow
Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Law Institute
Murdoch University

aplin@central.murdoch.edu.au

[1] Some of us might be momentarily confused into believing that Going Digital is the prequel to that trusted manual of the information technology revolution, Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte. As appealing as this idea might seem (or not), this text stands apart.

[2] Going Digital comprises a collection of papers concerning predominantly Australian legal issues that infuse the areas of e-commerce, multimedia and the Internet. This book emerged from a series of seminars under the same name, which have been adapted for publication. The contributors are a blend of Australian senior academics and practitioners, who are well versed in the relevant technologies, and their expertise is translated into a practical and discerning set of papers.

[3] The book is divided into four main subject areas: copyright, patents and trade marks, electronic commerce and liability and privacy issues.

[4] The section on copyright successfully traverses the main copyright issues that arise in the face of digital technology. Andrew Christie's paper on copyright protection for web sites is a thorough and astute assessment of this topic, offering an obvious mixture of practical and legal advice. Anne Fitzgerald and Cristina Cifuentes' paper deals with the significant, but often overlooked, question of what copyright protection a multimedia work (or 'mutlimedia' work according to the page title headings - a mongrel digital work perhaps?) as a whole might attract. While the option of protection as a cinematograph film is explored in some detail, the other options for protection are glossed over. Moreover, their conclusion that this category will protect a wide variety of multimedia works is one that may be disputed. The paper by Brian Fitzgerald on 'Recent international initiatives concerning copyright in the digital era', provides a necessary and highly pertinent framework in which to place Australian copyright law. Michael Lean's paper on licensing issues for multimedia rounds up this section with a concise summary of this area.

[5] The patents and trade marks section of this text addresses some pressing legal issues raised by digital technology. The paper on e-commerce patents by John Swinson is a particularly prescient piece, given the recent State Street Bank appeal decision and surrounding media attention. David Webber's paper on intellectual property in Internet software synthesises the copyright and patent protection given to computer software in Australia and is a useful point of reference, since it is software after all that continues to provide the mainstay of the information revolution. The paper on domain names and trade marks covers a well-worn, but not yet resolved, area of intellectual property law and is a necessary addition to a section of this kind.

[6] The section on electronic commerce offers a highly useful and astute analysis of the legal issues pertinent to this area. Andrea Beatty does a lucid and meticulous exposition of the law affecting electronic payment mechanisms and electronic banking, covering jurisdiction, privacy, data protection, and codes of conduct. Similarly, Adrian McCullogh competently addresses the nature of electronic contracts and digital signatures, which mechanisms lie at the heart of e-commerce, and the legal issues associated with these mechanisms. The paper on website development agreements by Steve White swings the reader away from the nuts and bolts legal issues of e-commerce to one of its main marketing tools and offers a pragmatic checklist of concerns for the website developer.

[7] The final section on liability and privacy issues is devoted to the vulnerability of Internet service providers. The exposure to liability that ISPs might face in respect of copyright, defamation and privacy, in an Australian context and with US comparisons, is comprehensively discussed. However, there is a degree of overlap between these papers. Much of what Brian Fitzgerald covers in 'Internet Service Provider Liability' is canvassed in the previous two papers by Alistair Payne and Patrick Quirk, 'On-line liability' and 'Defamation in Cyberspace' respectively. The final paper in this section by Patrick Gunning ends this book on a positive note, since it is a diligent analysis of the privacy obligations of ISPs operating within Australia.

[8] Overall, this text offers a valuable 'snapshot'of the Australian legal issues stimulated by the digital revolution, sprinkled with apposite international comparisons. Any snapshot risks its subject changing with time and this risk is exaggerated in an area such as digital technology. While several developments have occurred since publication (e.g. U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and others seem imminent (e.g. Commonwealth Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill 1999, Electronic Transactions Bill 1999 and moral rights legislation; and the proposed EU Directive on Copyright and Related Rights), there remains a core of practical observations and advice for practitioners and those working in the fields of e-commerce, multimedia and the Internet. It is also encouraging to see a publication of this nature having an Australian focus and one might wish for more works of this kind, particularly as digital technology further embeds itself in our culture. Who knows, perhaps a sequel, Doing Digital, lurks somewhere on the horizon.