Talk:Rights Management

From TDL Metadata Group

We've identified 3 general areas that require representation in metadata (this is just for human readable metadata right now):

1. Info about the copyright holder.

Notes: This may be the author(s) or a publisher. The copyright holder may or may not be the one who put the digital object into the institution's collection.

2. Info about the rights/permission of the institution with regard to the digital object.

Notes: Why does the institution have the right to store, archive, or provide access to the digital object? Is it through an express agreement with the copyright holder? Has the copyright holder made the object available via a Creative Commons or similar license? Or is the institution claiming Fair Use in its use of the digital object?

3. Info about the intended use of the digital object by end users.

Notes: This would default to the uses allowed under copyright law, but an author could provide restrictions or permissions for end users in terms of copying, printing, saving, displaying, etc. the digital object.

 

In thinking about this, I'm trying to think in as general terms as possible. During our initial discussions we really seemed to focus on an Institutional Repository understanding of rights metadata, but we need to consider other types of digital collections, as well, where the author or copyright holder is not necessarily the one including the digital object in the collection. In the context of an IR, the institution can easily obtain permission to include the digital object by requiring that the author sign some sort of agreement allowing the institution to archive and provide access to the object. In other contexts, the institution needs to protect itself by showing:

• What it does with the digital object (archive, preserve, provide access to, etc.)
• Its legal basis for doing this (fair use, author agreement, some other license)

 

== fourth area == I added a fourth area to the framework: the copyright status itself (copyrighted, public domain, etc., year of copyright)

Examples

Here are a couple of examples that illustrate my thinking. Brian and I (Jason) have tossed these around via email. These are based on copyrightMD, but I've altered it pretty substantially. I'm sure that this will change drastically in the future.

Example 1

<rights>
            <copyright>
                        <status>copyrighted</status>
                        <year.copyright>2006</year.copyright>
                        <year.renewal>2081</year.renewal>
            </copyright>
            <rights.holder>
                        <name>Jason Thomale</name>
                        <contact>j.thomale@ttu.edu</contact>
            </rights.holder>
            <general.note>You have permission to copy the following work under the condition that  … </general.note>
            <curation agent="rights_holder">
                        <institution>Texas Tech University</institution>
                        <permission type="express_agreement">I agree to grant Texas Tech University the non-exclusive right to …</permission>
            </curation>
</rights>


Example 2

<rights>
            <copyright>
                        <status>copyrighted</status>
                        <year.copyright>1955</year.copyright>
                        <year.renewal>2030</year.renewal>
            </copyright>
            <rights.holder>
                        <name>Walt Disney Corporation</name>
                        <contact> … </contact>
            </rights.holder>
            <general.note>Intended use must fall under Fair Use … </general.note>
            <curation agent="institution">
                        <institution>Texas Tech University</institution>
                        <permission type="fair_use">Texas Tech University archives and provides access to this object under the conditions of Fair Use because …</permission>
            </curation>
</rights>


Example 3

<rights>
            <copyright>
                        <status>copyrighted</status>
                        <year.copyright>2006</year.copyright>
                        <year.renewal>2081</year.renewal>
            </copyright>
            <rights.holder>
                        <name>Pearl Jam</name>
                        <contact> … </contact>
            </rights.holder>
            <general.note>You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work for noncommercial purposes … </general.note>
            <curation agent="institution">
                        <institution>Texas Tech University</institution>
                        <permission type="license">Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5</permission>
            </curation>
</rights>

Basically, the <curation> element describes the institution’s right to store, archive, and provide access to a work. The curation agent would be the entity responsible for depositing or including the work in the collection—if it’s in an IR setting, the curation agent would be the rights holder; otherwise, it might be the institution itself. The <institution> would be the institution that owns the collection. The <permission> element then describes the type of permission that the institution has to include the work in its collection.