Title to lost items When Australia Post pays a compensation or International Extra Cover claim for the loss of or unrepairable damage to an item, that item becomes the property of Australia Post unless its value exceeds the claim amount paid. (too bad if it is counterfeit - even if it is lost in space - its theirs.) If they get it back subsequent to you being paid insurance compentation by them - they'll SELL it back to you. Subsequent discovery of lost items If Australia Post discovers an item after paying a compensation or International Extra Cover claim for its loss, Australia Post notifies the claimant. The claimant may recover the item provided they repay the claim amount to Australia Post within 30 days of receiving the notice. Australia Post would really want to make sure that item wasn't counterfeit - wouldn't they. Selling counterfeit goods back to the original owner would be a crime. Australia Post better employ a lot of antique, fashion, and all sorts of other experts and get to work opening all those parcels. I really think the ISP is in a less liable position, they don't 'take title' and ownership of the packets if you don't get them and they certainly don't sell them to you after compensating you for their loss.

I wonder if anyone has (inadvertently) bought a fake item from say ebay or somewhere equally likely, and had it delivered by Australia Post. Would they not be as guilty or worse than an ISP who doesn't open your information?

The simplest cure would be to organise a complete boycott of cinema's, record stores. Simply don't buy any product. That is more likely to have the right effect. If you'd like to be more militant perhaps browse as usual, take it to the counter and explain why you aren't ever going to buy any of their products again, leaving the store person to ponder their future as they place the product back on the shelf... Be nice, it isn't their fault personally. Smile as you do it.

The earliest sci-fi book in my collection is Robert Wittie's 'A Survey of the Heavens' and 'Star Wars' published in 1681. It gave birth to a genre that has come a long way. The Sci-Fi Astromaxia or Star Wars - the story of a war between the inhabitants of other worlds was written to stimulate students and give them an interest in the study of the stars. I think the previous comments demonstrate the success of Witties endeavours. Any study of sci-fi is not complete without it. Conveniently the first part 'A Survey of the Heavens' opens with such chapters as 'The verification of the Copernican Theory' (goodbye flat earth) through to 'The probability of other inhabited worlds'. These chapters along with an apology to the god-fearing doubters were a good intro to Astromaxia and illustrate the early difficulty sci-fi writers faced - death. H.P. Lovecraft was a fan. His copy is in the Yale library. It is somewhat rare and you may find it through the universities on microfiche. If you cannot obtain a copy I could provide you with a digital copy of my own book.

I would probably let the students pick and justify their selections and get a short list.
The history of science fiction goes back to H.P. Lovecraft's own book collection. I believe he was greatly influenced by, as were many young students who grew up to write the first Sci-fi back earlier in the 1600's - Robert Wittie's Star Wars - written specifically to stimulate the minds of students and open their eyes to the heavens.
The book in question was both a paper to the Royal Society - 'A Survey of the Heavens' a serious work with chapters such as 'The verification of the (recent) Copernican Hypothesis' to 'The Probability of Other Inhabited worlds'. At the end of the rare copy I own is the story 'Astromaxia' or 'Star Wars'. Lovecraft's copy is I believe at Yale. It also contains several things that might make you think of George Lucas's Star Wars plot, but I don't know if Lucas ever read it.
I find it quite grounding to realise that nearly 400 years ago sci-fi was alive and well.

I believe it is available on microfilm at some Universities but if you have difficulty I could perhaps provide you with a digital copy.