The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty — also known as the WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT — was adopted in 1996 to cover information technology and the internet, elements not directly addressed in the Berne Convention.
Copyright protection on the internet provides the original authors and artists the right to prevent others from copying or taking the original work and claiming it as their own. Copyright laws in the United States give protection to the author or creator of any original works.
Copyright in the digital world
In this digitized world that we live in, our daily lives are incomplete without multimedia bombarding us, be it through phones, tablets or computers. But, have you ever thought about whose work we are using, or who owns the different streams of multimedia that we interact with? The answer is No. In most cases, different multimedia content, whether videos, memes, photos, websites or operating systems are protected under the law of copyright.
Further reading: 21st Century Copyright Law 101: Copyright Infringement in Cyberspace