Under current law, works copyrighted by an individual are protected for life of the author, plus fifty years. Works copyrighted by a business entity are protected by 75 years from the publication of the work or 100 years from its creation, whichever expires first. Works copyrighted under older law may be protected for different periods. Traditional copyright concepts have been put to the test by advances in computer and information technology. Recently, that trend has started to be reversed.
Multimedia is an emerging area.
It combines photography, music, film, text, and computer programs, each of which had its own industry customs for licensing and exploitation of rights granted by copyright. Making sure that these rights mesh in multimedia product can be a difficult task. In addition, advances in computer technology now enables multimedia presentations to be created on personal computers rather than in professional studios with equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result, there are many more persons capable of producing infringing materials. Copyright issues are looming large on the Information Superhighway.