This means that a group of producers of a multimedia work would, for example, own the work fifty years after the death of its last author. Copyright covers all types of works including literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. Republishing, re-purposing , downloading, browsing, displaying on the screen, and communicating via telecommunications are related to these economic rights. The owner also has control over public performance, that is, works performed, shown or exhibited in a public place. In Canada, educational institutions are included in the definition of a public performance site.
Owners also have moral and neighbouring rights.
Moral rights include paternity, integrity and association. Neighbouring rights include performances of a work and broadcasting. These aspects of copyright relate directly to the development of distributed learning. In many cases, the creation of multimedia works and distributed learning courses involves republishing and adapting existing copyrighted works. Media copyright is especially relevant to the creation and production of works for distributed learning.