Our world is changing.  New technologies are bringing people and ideas together in new ways.  This flow of people and ideas has created new issues in the areas of intellectual property and copyright.  Ease of exchange of ideas and media has brought people together to create in new ways and has brought people together to protect what they have created in new ways.  Tension between the collaboration of creators and collaborations of the protectors of the creations will certainly shape how copyright and copyright violation is handled throughout the world in years to come.

With the technology available now, artists, musicians, film makers, authors and other creators have the opportunity to self publish online and provide an immediate international audience for their work.  Professional and amateur artists are able to use the same venues to share their work. Individuals who make their living by what they create feel the economic impact of having immediate access to such a large consumer group.  Creators have the opportunity to exchange ideas and collaborate with individuals around the globe.  Artists are no longer limited by the material that they have at hand or working only with the people who are geographically close to them.   

Using the web as a method of displaying and selling one’s intellectual property is not without risk.  Online media is easily reproduced and manipulated.  The intellectual property shared and sold on the internet is easy to manipulate because reproduction does not pose any cost to the reproducer.  If a person were to steal the intellectual property of a car design, there would be cost involved with the reproduction of the model of the car.   With the audio and video technology readily available today, reproducing and manipulating some one’s intellectual property is relatively easy and free of cost.  In some circumstances, the finished creative product of one individual is the raw materials for the creative work of another individual.  The ease of manipulation and recreation makes it very difficult for the artist to protect the original intent of their work and the financial revenues that the work would generate.