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Interoperability: Digital Rights Management and the Emerging EBook Environment - Notes and ReferencesStephen Mooney |
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Notes and References[1] No discussion of EBX can proceed without acknowledging the enormous contributions of Glassbook, recently acquired by Adobe, and particularly the time and effort devoted by Tom Diaz, Bob Mathews, and the rest of the Glassbook team. In December 2000 the EBX membership voted to merge into the Open eBook Forum (OeBF) as of 1 February 2001. Back to the text of the article. [2] AAP commissioned Andersen Consulting to assist in producing a report on electronic books. It is sometimes referred to as "The Andersen Report." However, I refer to it in this article as the "AAP eBook Report." It contains three sections, one on Digital Rights Management (DRM), one on metadata, and one on numbering, and it is available at <http://www.publishers.org>. Back to the text of the article. [3] In a forthcoming article in Publishing Research Quarterly entitled "Digital Object Identifiers for eBooks: What Are We Identifying?", I first addressed "What is an ebook?" and the sales/licensing distinction in a presentation to the International Rights Directors' Meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair, October 2000. Back to the text of the article. [4] Digital Rights Management for eBooks: Publisher Requirements, version 1.0 Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000 (available at http://www.publishers.org/home/drm.pdf). Back to the text of the article. [5] Numbering Standards for eBooks, version 1.0, Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000. Back to the text of the article. [6] Metadata Standards for eBooks, version 1.0 Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000. Back to the text of the article. [7] AAP DRM Report at 6. Back to the text of the article. [8] Ibid at 57. Back to the text of the article. [9] "DRM standards will need to enable interoperability that will drive robust market growth. While there are some nascent efforts at standardization underway, DRM-related technologies are likely to remain nonstandard for some time because companies are currently pursuing incompatible proprietary solutions." Back to the text of the article. [10] Ibid at 6. Back to the text of the article. [11] Ibid at 25. Back to the text of the article. [12] Ibid at 26. Back to the text of the article. [13] For especially thorough treatments of how patent rights and Digital Rights Management implicate one another, see the various works of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). Such work is unfortunately beyond the scope of this article. I am particularly indebted to Mr. Douglas Armati of Intertrust Technologies <http://www.intertrust.com> for his outstanding descriptions of MPEG�s work. Back to the text of the article. [14] See also Schull, Jonathan, Presentation at OeBF Meeting, New York, NY USA, June 2000. Dr. Schull is Founder and Chief Scientist of Digital Goods <http://www.digitalgoods.com>, formerly Softlock. Back to the text of the article. [15] See <http://www.ebxwg.org> and the EBX Membership Agreement in particular, provisions of which encouraged EBX members (largely technology companies) to disclose the extent to which EBX specifications implicated their patent rights and to make clear the terms under which they would license their rights, if at all. These provisions were much discussed within EBX, particularly when the subject of DRM eBook interoperability arose. The EBX patent disclosure provisions were never invoked, and harmonization of patent rights vis-�-vis eBook interoperability was largely an academic matter within EBX. Now that EBX has voted to merge into the Open eBook Forum, the provisions of the EBX membership agreement as to patents are largely moot. I intend no criticism of EBX processes that in fact had my full support. Of course, I was fortunate enough to represent an organization that held no patent rights in the area, so the question was, in all events, relatively easy for me. Back to the text of the article. [16] The Electronic Book Exchange System, version 0.8, Book Industry Study Group, New York, NY USA, July 2000 at 8. Back to the text of the article. [17] Ibid at 38. Back to the text of the article. [18] Ibid at 47. Back to the text of the article. [19] Communication from an anonymous colleague, 4 December 2000. Back to the text of the article. [20] The italics are mine. Back to the text of the article. [21] AAP DRM Report at 28. Back to the text of the article. [22] See <http://www.openebook.org>. Back to the text of the article. [23] Ibid. Back to the text of the article. [24] Communication from an anonymous colleague, 4 December 2000. Back to the text of the article. [25] See <http://www.xrml.org>. Back to the text of the article. [26] See <http://www.odrl.net>. Back to the text of the article. [27] Private communication from an anonymous colleague, 4 December 2000. Back to the text of the article. [28] Erickson, John. The Role of Metadata Supply Chains in DOI-Based, Value-Added Services. ICSTI Forum <http://www.icsti.org/icsti/forum/fo9904.html>, Quarterly Newsletter of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, No. 30, April 1999. Back to the text of the article. [29] Dr. Erickson coined the phrase, "Metadata is the lifeblood of e-commerce." Back to the text of the article. [30] AAP DRM Metadata Report at 7. Back to the text of the article. [31] ONIX is published and maintained by Editeur, <http://www.editeur.org>. As noted on Editeur�s web site, "The goal (of ONIX) is to standardize the transmitting of (book) product information so that wholesalers, retailers and others in the supply chain will all be able to accept information that is transferred electronically in ONIX International format." Back to the text of the article. [32] Ibid at 6. Back to the text of the article. [33] Ibid at 41. Back to the text of the article. [34] Ibid at 35. Back to the text of the article. [35] Bide, Mark and Rust, Godfrey, Interoperability of Data in e-Commerce Systems, <http://www.indecs.org> Back to the text of the article. [36] Bide, Mark and Rust, Godfrey, Introduction to the INDECS metadata schema, 1999, <http://www.indecs.org>. Back to the text of the article. [37] AAP eBook Numbering Standards at 7. Back to the text of the article. [38] See Bide, Mark, In Search of the Unicorn, The Digital Object Identifier from a User Perspective, BNBRF Report 89, Book Industry Communications, London, February 1998 (available at http://www.bic.org.uk/unicorn2.pdf). See also Bernstein, Paula, DOI: A New Identifier for Digital Content. Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, Vol. 6, No. 1, Jan. 1998 (available at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan98/story4.htm). See also The DOI Handbook, version 0.5.1, The International DOI Foundation, Washington, D.C. USA and Geneva, Switzerland, September 2000 (available at http://www.doi.org/handbook_2000/index.html). Back to the text of the article. [39] Paskin, Norman, Digital Object Identifier: implementing a standard digital identifier as the key to effective digital rights management, The International DOI Foundation, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, 2000 at 3 (available at http://www.doi.org/doi_presentations/aprilpaper.pdf). Back to the text of the article. [40] John Erickson of HP Labs advocates interoperability through vocubularies and messaging standards. See Erickson, John, "Toward an Open Rights Management Interoperaability Framework, <http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/ericksonRT19990624.pdf>. Back to the text of the article. [41] The Corporation for National Research Initiatives, Handle System <http://www.handle.net/>. Back to the text of the article. Copyright© 2001 Stephen Mooney |
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