It is of course trite to say the French are different. If there is another way of doing things they'll discover it and probably make it work. it wasn't until I started typing this that I realized that a French keyboard layout is almost entirely different to an Anglo-Saxon one and entirely non-intuitive to an Anglo-Saxon person (qwerty becomes azerty, full stop is on shift and the rest of the punctuation marks are scattered randomly). One more blow for globalization and American hegemony. Ah well, please forgive the typos.

I am here in Paris on behalf of British publishers to defend our authors' copyrights from the threat of digital kleptomania (Quelles modalités d'accès aux textes numériques sous droits?). Digital technologies offer the greatest opportunities for centuries for publishers but only if we can ensure our authors a proper income from the distribution of their works and develop business models which genuinely work for the reader and user of information.

Scientific and legal publishers have invested heavily in digital infrastructure which has enabled them to offer their authors faster and more enhanced publication; their readers lower cost, better designed and more universal access; and their owners enough cash to continue to invest. These publishers work closely with the new digital giants (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc) and their aims seem to be aligned.

On the contrary typical book publishers have yet to create the necessary platforms and the new 'players' see that as an opportunity to move into the book business and a moral justification for turning a blind eye to the niceties of copyright.

Book publishers need to fight vigorously to maintain strong copyright protection for their authors. Copyright not only rewards authors for their creativity and labour, it also is a protector of freedom of speech.

But book publishers must do more than simply fight on principle and by turning to lawyers. They must show that they are willing to invest money as well. They must build digital warehouses which can protect the copyrights. They must build digital delivery systems which can work with search engines to present and sell their authors' work to new markets in new forms. They must be willing to take investment risk. They must work with authors and distributors to help build new and better business models.

All this and continue to sell books too. Bonne journée.