The Big Five of Commercial Media After a number of mergers and acquisitions five powerful media conglomerates lead the world's content production and distribution. They operate on an international basis with subsidiaries all around the globe and engage in every imaginable kind of media industry. Table: The World's Leading Media Companies Media Company 1998 Revenues (in US$) Property/Corporate Information AOL Time Warner (US) 26,838.000.000* http://www.timewarner.com/corp/about/timewarnerinc/corporate/index.html Disney (US) 22,976.000.000 http://www.disney.com Bertelsmann (GER) 16,389.000.000 http://www.bertelsmann.com/facts/report/report.cfm News Corporation (AUS) 12,841.000.000 http://www.newscorp.com/public/cor/cor_m.htm Viacom (US) 12,100.000.000 http://www.viacom.com/global.tin (* Revenues of Time Warner only (merger with AOL took place in January 2000)

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DMCA The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) was signed into law by U.S. President Clinton in 1998 and implements the two 1996 WIPO treaties (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty). Besides other issues the DMCA addresses the influence of new technologies on traditional copyright. Of special interest in the context of the digitalization of intellectual property are the titles no. 2, which refers to the limitation on the liability of online service providers for copyright infringement (when certain conditions are met), no. 3, that creates an exemption for making a copy of a computer program in case of maintenance and repair, and no. 4 which is concerned with the status of libraries and webcasting. The DCMA has been widely criticized for giving copyright-holders even more power and damage the rights and freedom of consumers, technological innovation, and the free market for information.

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