Copyright and its effects on the media

Abstract

Over the course of the past 200 years copyright has been defined and redefined. During this time the world has undergone enormous changes in the ways in which information can be treated, stored, distributed and experienced, most radically in the past fifty years or so. But even with these changes, the principle of copyright remains the basic principle of information-based commerce, that there exist owners of certain exclusive rights to creative works and that they have the right to enforce their ownership rights by seeking remuneration in exchange for granting others limited rights for the use of their works. Computer networks seem to mesh smoothly in an era of information flow. Never before has information been so accessible, with the capacity to promote economic and scholarly growth. With today's technology, however, digitally-distributed creative works present serious challenges to the notion of copyright compliance. Creative works must be accessible to be of value, but in the digital world today easy access also means vulnerability to unauthorized distribution of perfect reproductions by others. It is just as easy for others to create unauthorized derivative works without proper attribution to the originator or appropriate payment of royalties, and for others to publish unauthorized modifications under the original author's name.