The document discusses opportunities and challenges around rights technologies. It covers topics like encryption, content identification, and licensing automation. Regarding encryption, it notes successes with time-bounded access and bundling content with devices. Content identification has succeeded in identifying music uploads and monetizing them. However, licensing automation faces challenges around standard identifiers, machine-readable rights descriptions, and fragmentation. The document advocates lowering costs of rights technologies and converting sticks (restrictions) into carrots (incentives) to encourage widespread adoption.

1. The Carrot or the Stick:
Opportunities and Challenges in Rights
Technologies
Bill Rosenblatt
November 4, 2013

2. About GiantSteps
Consultancy focused on content & rights technologies
Clients include copyright owners, service providers,
technology vendors
Advisory work for public policy and standards bodies
on digital copyright

3. Rights Technology Innovation in Asia-Pacific
450
70
400
60
350
50
Gross Expenditure
on R&D (USD Billion)
300
250
40
200
30
150
20
100
Rights Technologies
Output (research
papers)
Rights Technologies
R&D Index
10
50
0
0
Device Producers
Content Producers
Sources: OECD, IMF

4. Carrots and Sticks

5. Carrots and Sticks
and Rights Technologies
 Creative content
models
 Licensing
automation
 Encryption
(DRM, CAS)
 Piracy monitoring
 Upload filtering

6. Technologies

7. Encryption Technologies
DRM
– Generally refers to encrypted downloaded files
CAS
– Encryption of streams/signals over managed network
Stream encryption
– Over unmanaged network (Internet)

8. Where Has Encryption Succeeded?
 Time-bounded
access
 Content bundled
with devices
 Managing risk during
transition from
physical to digital
 Reducing personal
infringement
(“oversharing”)

9. Digital Transitions and DRM
 DRM manages risk in new digital markets
– Risk of infringement by tech-savvy early adopters
– Protection of service providers’ investment
 When leader emerges, DRM becomes less necessary
– Service providers’ investments recouped
– Inconvenience of leaving leader’s ecosystem is like form of DRM
– And competitors will respond with DRM-free anyway
 Case in point: music downloads
 E-books may be next

10. Time-Bounded Models
 Subscription music
 Subscription over the top video on demand
 Library e-book lending
 E-textbook rentals

11. Bundling Content with Devices
 Original bundled network/device model:
Managed networks, CAS
 Mobile phones with free music downloads
 Subsidized e-book “lending”:
Amazon Prime Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

12. Where Has Encryption Failed?
 Legacy emulations if kept around too long:
DRM for music downloads
 New time-based models if introduced too early:
e-book rentals
 Bundling content with unpopular devices:
Nokia & Sony Ericsson music services

13. Content Identification
Identify content on download or “in the wild”
Take action:
– Flag infringement
– Block upload
– Monetize with contextual ad
– Suggest legal alternative
Techniques
– Fingerprinting
– Watermarking

14. Content Identification Techniques





Watermarking
Embed invisible/inaudible data
before or during distribution
Can be up to a few dozen bytes
Software to detect watermarks
in files
Can contain user information
Content must be watermarked





Fingerprinting
No change to content required
Run sophisticated algorithm to
compute “fingerprint” of file
Match against fingerprint
database
Does not contain information
Works with all content

15. Where Has Content Identification Succeeded?
 Identifying music &
offering buy
opportunity (F)
 Monetizing uploads
with contextual ads
(F)
 Second screen apps
(F or W)
 “Social DRM” for ebooks (W)
 Extra protection with
DRM for high-value
video (W)
 Piracy monitoring
(mostly F)
 Filtering file uploads
(F)

16. Licensing Automation:
Identifiers & Rights Registries
Online database of rights information for content
Standard identifiers for content
Problem badly needs to be solved

17. Licensing Automation Challenges
Identifiers: what do they identify?
IP (abstract), product, whole vs. part
Machine-readable rights descriptions
Registry ownership, governance, maintenance
Private sector progress vs. antitrust concerns
Fragmentation by media type and geography

18. Too Many Standards
Identifiers
Music
 ISRC
 ISWC
 GRid
Publishing
 ISBN
 ISSN
 DOI
Video
 ISAN
 EIDR
 UMID
General
 URN
 URI
 Handle
Rights Description Languages







XRML
MPEG REL
ODRL
RightsML (news)
CC REL (Creative Commons)
PLUS (images)
PRISM RL (periodicals)

19. ID/Registry Initiatives
Public Sector/Non-profit
 Global Repertoire Database
(music)
 International Music Registry
(WIPO)
 UK Copyright Hub
 Copyright Data Clearinghouse
(Japan, music)
 Korean Copyright Exchange
Private Sector
 ImageIRC – Getty Images
 Book Rights Registry – Google

20. Missed Opportunity: Book Rights Registry
Content
Publishers
Publishers
Publishers
Metadata &
Rights
Payments
Content
Metadata,
Rights,
Payments
Book Rights
Registry
Payments
Metadata &
Rights
Service
Providers
Content
Libraries
Libraries
Libraries

21. Opportunities

22. Economic Incentives
Economics are the primary issue
Underlying economics of rights technologies:
– Copyright owners benefit
– Downstream entities bear much of the cost
Strategies:
– Lower the costs
– Turn sticks into carrots

23. Lower the Costs
Explore lightweight mechanisms to encourage
widespread adoption
Instead of “arms race,” match security strength to user
behavior and economic realities
Rely on anticircumvention laws in many countries
Develop policies that spread costs equitably throughout
content value chain

24. Convert Sticks to Carrots
Find a behavior that could be infringing
Find someone who benefits from it
Track and monetize the behavior
Best example:

25. 감사합니다
Thank You
Bill Rosenblatt
GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
www.giantstepsmts.com
billr@giantstepsmts.com
Blog: copyrightandtechnology.com
Twitter: @copyrightandtec
+1 212 956 1045