264 Chapter 12 Professional Issues in Multimedia Development
cases, the owner or owners of copyright are not easily identified. When multiple owners
are involved, it is time-consuming and expensive to negotiate costs with each party. Often,
holders of copyright demand large payments for relatively modest uses of their media.
And recent extensions in the period for which works are protected by copyright and other
changes in copyright law have further limited access to media. In 1973, the average time
for which a work was protected by copyright was 32.5 years. After that time it entered the
public domain and was available for use by other creators. Today, the average period of
copyright protection has nearly tripled to 95 years, making it