[dvd-discuss] Call for Input on Content Control

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson(at)realmeasures.dyndns.org>]

(Forwarded from Digital Copyright list,
digital-copyright@lists.umuc.edu)

-------- Original Message --------
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 10:12:51 -0500
From: "Charles E. Jones" <cejo@midway.uchicago.edu>


Forwarded at the request of the undersigned.

>Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 07:51:55 -0400
>From: Patrick Durusau <pdurusau@emory.edu>
>
>Greetings,
>
>I deeply appreciate Robin Cover's post to the list 
>requesting DRM requirements and would urge the 
>academic community to response appropriately, even 
>given the rather short deadline for requirements 
>(7 August 2002).
>
>In terms of deciding to devote summer hours to
>this task, please consider the membership of this
>TC:
>
>Hari Reddy, Chairperson ContentGuard
>Carlisle Adams, Entrust
>Bob Atkinson, Microsoft
>Thomas DeMartini, ContentGuard
>John Erickson, H.P.
>Brad Gandee, Secretary ContentGuard
>Bob Glushko, CommerceOne
>Thomas Hardjono, Verisign
>Hal Lockhart, Entegrity
>M. Paramasivam, Microsoft
>David Parrott, Reuters
>Harry Piccariello, ContentGuard
>Peter Schirling, IBM
>Xin Wang, ContentGuard
>
>While I am sure all the members of the TC will
>try to develop a standard that represents the
>interests of everyone affected by the DRM
>standard, I fail to see any representation of
>the academic, library or other communities.
>That is not to imply any fault on the part of
>the TC or OASIS, as a community academics have
>tended to absent themselves from such
>discussions.
>
>The interests of the academic community in
>issues such as "fair use" and allowing free
>(or at least non-commercial) use of texts and 
>research will not be well served by a standard
>that protects the commercial rights in the
>"Lion King" and similar artifacts. Our
>requirements are different and any standard
>for DRM should not attempt a one size fits all
>solution. I am sure that the TC would welcome
>academic input that would lead to a more
>nuanced standard that meets a wide range of
>needs, one of the hallmarks of a successful
>standard.
>
>Note that a DRM standard will eventually find
>its way into hardware/software and it will be
>too late to complain at that point that it
>does not meet the needs of the academic
>community.
>
>Please forward Robin's note (and my comments
>if you think appropriate) to anyone you know
>who is interested in "fair use" or more
>generally access to academic materials, since
>a DRM standard will deeply affect both issues.
>
>Patrick
>
>>
>>Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 06:40:20 +0100
>>From: Robin Cover
>>Subject: Request for DRM Requirements
>>
>>An OASIS Rights Language Technical Committee
>>[1] has been established to "define the
>>industry standard for a rights language" that
>>would govern many application domains,
>>including (potentially) digital libraries and
>>archive projects.  The TC has is using an
>>XrML markup language specification from
>>ContentGuard (Xerox and Microsoft) as the
>>basis for defining this common standard.
>>
>>Requirements are now being collected as input
>>to the standard's design. A request is hereby
>>made for input from the academic community,
>>(digital) libraries, museums, archive centers
>>[etc], including persons affiliated with ALA
>>or RLG.  The relevant OASIS subcommittee will
>>collect requirements through August 7, 2002.
>>
>>Current legislative proposals for
>>incorporating DRM technology and usage
>>policies into computer hardware, operating
>>system software, and applications level
>>software raise the stakes for the humanities
>>community, especially as traditional notions
>>of fair use are being challenged as too
>>burdensome to implement in DRM systems.  The
>>Creative Commons Project [2] exemplifies the
>>attempt of one group to counter this trend,
>>but the effects of a government-mandated
>>universal DRM technology are of concern to a
>>growing number of technologists [3].
>>
>>Any interested party having access to DRM
>>specifications or implementations, or
>>otherwise motivated to help in the submission
>>of 'rights management' requirements for
>>humanities computing applications is invited
>>to send email expressing this interest.
>>
>>Robin Cover
>>robin@isogen.com
>>
>>[1] http://xml.coverpages.org/oasisRightsLanguage.html
>>[2] http://www.creativecommons.org/
>>[3] http://xml.coverpages.org/patents.html
>
>
>--
>Patrick Durusau
>Director of Research and Development
>Society of Biblical Literature
>pdurusau@emory.edu