Information Outlook, Vol. 6, No. 5, May 2002
Digital Rights Management and Content Licensing
By Dave D. Davis Jr.
There are two ways to look at the availability of valuable content on the Internet. On the one hand, you can often access the content you need 24/7 with a click of a mouse. That's the bright side. The negative side is the ease by which your colleagues can download copyrighted content and e-mail or distribute it by other means without ever getting permission from the rightsholder. It's the equivalent of walking the litigation tightrope.
For librarians and other information professionals, the dilemma is obvious. You want to provide your clients with premium content in a timely fashion, while ensuring that your organization is complying with U.S. copyright law. (See Table A.) Combining the two can sometimes feel like mixing oil with water. But cutting edge technology may help relieve this problem. It is only a matter of time before Web-based tools were developed to alleviate the copyright compliance challenges created by the Internet. After all, if there's no way to control how digital content is used and at what price, then digital content would eventually cease to exist.
Table A
| Rightsholder (Publisher, Author, etc.) Needs | Information Professional Needs |
| Degree of control in distribution | Broad availability of premium content |
| Maintenance of subscription revenues | Easy, fast, cost-effective way to redistribute content |
| Management of rights ownership issues | More uniform licensing agreements |
| Integrity of reused content | Centralized clearance mechanisms |
To understand how these new technologies work, it's first important to take a closer look at why they ever came about. Before the 1990's, the main culprit of unlawful content reproduction was the photocopier and, prior to 1992, we experienced a 20-year period of relative quiet in terms of copyright law cases. Then some major court decisions and the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) served as a wake-up call to content users. These said that copyright compliance was not optional-even in the digital world. It also clearly showed that compliance is not just about photocopies anymore. Although sections of the DMCA have become controversial since it went into effect, it has succeeded in establishing the copyright status of digital expression. (See Table B for a listing of recent court decisions regarding copyright law.)
Table B
| Recent Copyright Law Court Decisions | |
| Napster cases (1999-2001) | Napster was successfully sued by representatives of the music recording industry for contributing to infringement through its web-based software. |
| Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Passed 1998, in effect since 1999) | A major revision of U.S. copyright law, specifically regarding digital materials. |
| No Electronic Theft Act (1998) | A revision to copyright law (federal statute), creating criminal penalties for unauthorized distribution of software. |
| Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) | Extended the term of copyright protection to "life of the author plus 70 years" (or 95 years from publication of the work in the case of a corporation). |
| Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Services, Inc. (6th Cir. 1996) | Reaffirmed that academic photocopying for coursepacks is not fair use. |
| American Geophysical Union v. Texaco, Inc., 60 F.3d913 (2d Cir. 1995) | This decision held that much of the regular unlicensed photocopying by employees of a for-profit corporation is not fair use. |
| Feist Publications, Inc. vs. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, 111 S. Ct. 1282 (1991) | Factual compilations that show no creativity in either selection or organization of the facts presented (for example: ordinary, alphabetized white-page telephone directories) are not entitled to copyright protection. |
Simplified Compliance Is Spelled DRM
We've come a long way from the days when content users had to track down rightsholders directly for permission to republish or copy and distribute their intellectual property. As it does with so much other e-commerce, the Internet now serves as a critical tool in simplifying the traditional permissions process. Customers can instantly obtain permissions online from centralized licensing sites to reproduce copyrighted materials via photocopy, e-mail, republishing and Web postings. And now, thanks to emerging digital rights management (DRM) technologies, users can even get content along with the permissions directly from rightsholders' Web sites.
Before DRM surfaced, content users had two main tools to use in acquiring permissions to reproduce and distribute copyrighted materials: repertory licenses (also known as blanket or site licenses) and transactional permissions services. Licenses, applied to either individual or aggregated works, afford you the rights to reproduce specified content via certain formats, such as photocopy or e-mail. Some provide the actual content as well. Annual licenses are a common feature in libraries and other information centers. Transactional permissions services provide permissions online on more of an as-needed basis and you pay as you go.
DRM systems, the newest kid on the block in terms of content licensing, are applications that enable publishers to offer copyright licensing and the content itself directly from their Web sites, or through other electronic means. A good DRM service is also extremely user-friendly, because it allows customers to get everything they need all in one place, with a few clicks of a mouse.
To explain DRM in a more practical sense, let's walk through an example. Let's say one of your colleagues reads an article on a publisher's Web site and asks you to post it on your Internet or intranet site. You simply click on an icon located beside the article, and a special window pops up to take your licensing order. Enter information about how the article will be reproduced and in what quantity. You get instant pricing and the opportunity to pay those fees online. You obtain permission without ever leaving the rightsholder's site. The process is quick and easy.
The specifics of a DRM service's capabilities depend on what functions publishers choose to feature on their Web sites. Some sites may limit how long you can reuse licensed content. Others may use the technology to secure their works, making it next to impossible for you to even try to download or copy their content without their permission.
The fullest descriptions of DRM specifically include the rights management aspects as well as those functions that prevent unauthorized uses and users. Key DRM functions include:
· Rights management
· File security
· License creation
· Financial transaction
Much of the published literature on DRM to date focuses on the value DRM technologies bring to publishers and other creators and distributors. What will be DRM's successful value proposition for users such as information professionals working in special library contexts? The tools DRM offers to information professionals fall into four main categories:
· Superdistribution functions
· Library manager functions
· Searching
· Report creation
(See Table C.)
In the 1996 book Superdistribution: Objects As Property On the Electronic Frontier, author Brad Cox coined the neologism superdistribution, which refers to the network-enabled capacity to efficiently pass along digital content. A basic example is forwarded and re-forwarded e-mail. Superdistribution becomes interesting from an information service perspective when the library is no longer solely responsible for identifying and passing along highly relevant content, such as a key finding from a market research report. Instead, end-users are now able to fulfill this function, even for highly expensive, protected content. All they need is a license. If the content needs to travel even further afield, to a client or sales prospect, the end-user can use the same DRM service to purchase an additional license. The logistics of how the end-user orders additional licenses vary by service provider. In some instances, the forwarded content is accompanied by a link that the end-user can click on to order additional licensing quickly and simply.
Within the context of an interactive DRM application, library manager-type functions enable the information professional to allocate budgetary resources on a workgroup level. Using library manager functions of DRM, the library budget manager can access their transactional account online to reallocate on the fly, add or decrease the level and scope of content access by workgroup or individual title and adjust as needs change. This on-the-fly tweaking is nearly inconceivable under traditional site licensing arrangements.
In tandem with the DRM library manager functions, the librarian managing the client-side of the DRM application will require timely and dynamic reporting tools to measure what is being used, how much it is costing, who is using it, etc. Article-level reports in standard formats (such as comma-tab delimited and Excel) are a necessary component.
This reporting capability also enables search and retrieval functions, so that content known to be valuable can be easily found and repurposed. For example, the analyst's quote that was a great delight in January can be readily found again and put in the Annual Report (with permission) in June.
Table C
| Key Functions of a DRM Library Manager Tool | |
| SuperdistributionFunctions | |
| Forward content to additional project participants | |
| Prepay for colleagues | |
| Enforce time limits on content use | |
| Enforce access controls at content levelDeny request to forward if inappropriate | |
| DRM Library Manager Functions | |
| Enable price formula for volume discounts | |
| License additional permissions, uses | |
| Manage content subscriptions within the DRM service | |
| Maintain (raise/lower/deny) permission levels by individual, project group | |
| Searching | |
| Search for previously licensed content | |
| Standard search tools (author, title, standard #, subject, etc.) | |
| Report Creation | |
| Show costs, usage patterns | |
| Show opportunities, indicators for additional purchases | |
DRM and Fair Use
The development of DRM services has raised questions by information professionals as to how this new technology affects fair use. The recent trend among the courts and in statutes passed by Congress is towards narrowing the scope of fair use in the corporate sector. Since the target markets for DRM vendors have been primarily publishers and corporations rather than not-for-profit educational institutions and public libraries, their focus has been on licensing content. Over time, this initial market focus should be expected to change and broaden to take into account situations in which a license is not required or where intended uses are beyond the scope of a license already provided.
A few feasible approaches do exist now and others may be expected to emerge over time, such as:
· Publishers and content creators may provide for fair use in the Terms and Conditions statement included with the license.
· The First Sale doctrine in copyright law should be continued, so that in the usual case, a license to use content may be validly transferred without additional cost.
· Routing of legitimately purchased documents on paper (articles, reports) should be expected to continue. This may also become feasible for electronic documents.
· Not all DRM-enabled content will carry document security protections. In those cases, it is still up to the information professional's judgment.
The Future of Copyright Permissions
Perhaps the best way to experience the benefits of DRM is to try it out for yourself. Visit some of the Web sites of publishers who have already incorporated this technology, such as:
- Information Week (informationweek.com)
- Click on an article
- Click on License this article link located at the bottom of the article.
- The New York Times (nytimes.com)
- Click on an article written by staff writer
- Click on the link under section at bottom of right column entitled: Reprints and Permissions
- Cahners' Cablevision (insitetv.com/cablevision)
- Click on an article >
- Click on Order Reprints and Permissions link to the right of the heading
Copyright compliance need no longer cause content users to break out in hives. Technology trends are making it easier and more convenient than ever to reproduce and distribute intellectual property lawfully. Repertory licenses and transactional permissions services are proven tools in simplifying compliance, and you can be sure that DRM providers will continue to expand their services as more and more publishers offer this user-friendly technology on their Web sites. Such expansion means librarians and other information professionals will see greater licensing opportunities and increased access to premium content through more cost-effective text reproduction options.
David D. Davis Jr., associate director of corporate accounts at Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), has more than 15 years of experience in content and intellectual property management. Prior to joining CCC, Davis held directorships in several corporate and public libraries. He has published several articles on rights management, and delivered presentations to the Special Libraries Association (SLA), Association of Information and Dissemination Centers (ASIDIC), the Grey Literature Conference and other information organizations. Davis is a long-standing member of SLA. His e-mail address is ddavis@copyright.com.
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