ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of copyright and copyright industries and examines how the technological, legal, and business solutions help maintain the incentive to supply the lifeblood of the markets. For copyright protection, the original work of authorship should be fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which it can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The copyright law has different clauses for the protection of published and unpublished works. Protection of digital multimedia content therefore appears to be a crucial problem for which immediate solutions are needed. The chapter presents an overview of the complex problem of copyrighted multimedia content protection in digital distribution networks. It looks at the developments in key management, authentication, and watermarking for secure group communications in wired and wireless networks.
