How has copyright law changed since the advent of the internet and personal computers?

Answer 1

It generally takes the law some time to catch up with technology, so all too often, the answer to your question is "not much." Few countries have appropriately updated their legislation to handle global computer networks, file sharing, etc; the US is trying to use a law from 1976, the UK from 1988, and much of the world from 1971 (the Paris Act of the Berne Convention, which itself has little change from the 1967 Stockholm Act).

The US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 made a valiant attempt at updating the law to reflect current issues, but still attempts to relate new media to old media: portions of the law relating to mp3s were originally written in 1919 in response to piano rolls.

One topic lawmakers struggle with is the lack of border control on the internet. While all members of the World Trade Organization are required to have the same basic copyright laws, some countries have extended protection beyond what is minimally required.