Advances in multimedia will pose big challenges to copyright rules and legal frameworks in the media world, according to Laurence Kaye, of solicitors Saunders Sobell. Broadly speaking, the existing international regimes governing copyright and media ownership are built around the concept of well-defined boundaries between industries… so the stress on these regimes arises from the breakdown of those boundaries within a digital environment, he told the conference. He stressed need for an adequate international copyright framework to protect multimedia works and for there to be a balance between those with a vested interest in copyright protection and those who believe in information for free. Technology could help enforce copyright via encryption or electronic identification methods. All this could mean changes to media ownership laws, he declared.
