本研究旨在探討數位內容產業的範疇，並與出版產業之範疇相互對照比較。其主要目的為（一）探討數位內容的定義出版的定義，並加以比較。（二）探討數位內容產業的範疇。（三）討出版產業的範疇。（四）比較數位內容產業的分類與出版產業的分類，探求兩者的差異。本研究係採文獻探討與比較研究之方法。依據研究之目的，本研究之重要發現如下： 一、出版與數位內容定義比較，均有核心要素，內容（作品）。 二、出版未來的趨勢，朝向兩大類發展，紙本形式、數位形式。 三、出版產業的分類，我國與英、美兩國近似，但是美國很特別，屬於「資訊產業」項下的一大類。 四、數位內容產業各國的分類差異大。 五、我國出版產業 vs. 數位內容產業重疊性高。 最後，本研究根據上述結果加以討論，並提出建議，提供有關出版業者、事業主管機關未來研究者之參考。

This research refers the comparison method from Bereday, George Z.F. 1920-1983, also makes documents analysis to compare and evaluate the characteristics between the Publishing Industry and the Digital Content Industry in definition, Standard Industrial Classification and so on. Publishing is a series of social activities belong which a work created or chosen, then organize resources of which they are manpower, material, method, money, and machine etc. to duplicated the work and let those duplications issue from the press to the public. Above mentioned definition did not ask the form of performance and not ask the way of duplication and the container or the vehicle of the work and did not ask the method of distribution of the duplication. So, this definition also could fit every kind of the new media includes the new Digital Content Publishing industry of the new century. It means the definition of ‘publishing’ covered the ‘digital content’ for the ‘digital content publishing’. And therefore the writer calls ‘publishing’ today is ‘the mega-publishing or amplitude publishing’.