For more than fifty years, editors in mass-market print media have used photographs to inform, entertain and market. Today, the ability to create image-based, interactive media is a revolution comparable to the introduction of photographic reproduction to print media. But even though the power of images as information and entertainment is universally accepted, the visual content of current multimedia software is often dismal. I suspect three reasons for the disappointing content of most current multimedia. First, the level of visual sophistication of our better print media may not yet be expected from software producers. Second, these producers often avoid copyrighted pictures because of the hassle in locating and negotiating with the many individual rights holders. Finally, rights holders have economic and other disincentives to discourage them from licensing their intellectual property. All of these problems need to be solved before multimedia can achieve its potential to benefit rights holders, softwarepublishers, and society.