One central issue for discussion in the field of copyright has been how new multimedia producers can access and acquire pre-existing works and performances. By way of introduction, this article referred to cyberspace as an illusion. Most of us are acquainted with LANs, the Local Area Networks used by enterprises and organisations to link employees' computers together in networks. And, for quite some time, financial institutions, air carriers and others have been using WANs, Wide Area Networks, that is, dedicated, closed systems which allow virtual circumnavigation of the globe. For instance, they make it possible for a travel agency in Johannesburg to confirm a seat reservation on a flight departing from Oslo.
WANs are effective, but expensive.
Kopinor and similar organisations were established to deal with the illegal reproduction of copyright works by what was originally called photocopying. Over the years, we have been able to document, through statistical surveys, the enormous volumes of such reproduction going on throughout every sector of society. Over the years, we have also discovered that digital duplication and the storage of sizeable numbers of copyright works are taking place in closed information systems and digital archives. As a natural consequence of this, Kopinor has been devoting attention to closed networks since the mid-1980s. In the autumn of 1995, the idea of intranets fell into fertile soil and flourished.