Until the 1980s most media were domestically owned and regulated. Then, following the increased emphasis on free trade, national deregulation and privatization, pushed for by institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, drastic changes within the world of media occurred.
While throughout the 1990s media were still primarily organized on a national or local level, with the further rise of neoliberalism and the implementation of free movement of labor, goods, services and capital between countries the importance of national boundaries has diminished. Today the whole world participates in one global market system. Just as many other industries also commercial media have followed the trend towards globalization, resulting in an increasing number of transnational corporations (TNCs), which maintain subsidies in several countries and operate and invest on the basis of a multi-country perspective.
TEXTBLOCK 1/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611795/100438659081
With the rise of a global economic system a desire to establish agreements, which protect works not only within national borders, but also within a "Union" of countries or on an international level, has been expressed. As a consequence a variety of multilateral treaties have been negotiated and adopted by governments. Those shall simplify practice through international standardization and mutual recognition of rights and duties among nations.
TEXTBLOCK 2/2 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659570
Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and headquartered in Redmond, USA, Microsoft Corporation is today's world-leading developer of personal-computer software systems and applications. As MS-DOS, the first operating system released by Microsoft, before, Windows, its successor, has become the de-facto standard operating system for personal computer. According to critics and following a recent court ruling this is due to unfair competition.
For more detailed information see the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
The economic rights (besides