Re: Copy Control (draft-daviel-web-copy-control-00.txt)

  >This describes a simple HTTP header syntax (or HTML META tag) to
  >define the copyright status of a document in a machine-readable way,
  >and provide a link to a reference document which would define
  >the status explicitly.

	This is an interesting approach. I've been thinking about IPR protection
for a couple of years now. Previously it was with respect to SMPTE headers,
which caused big problems because of the question of what fields and
information to include (proposals for specifying usage rights can become
quite unwieldy). This was a problem, because we did not have convenient
ability to point elsewhere (as we do on the Web), hence what we packed into
the header could become quite a religious issue. However, on the Web we are
a bit more fortunate, _and_ the PICS standard that you can find off of
(http://www.w3.org) seems to be the perfect method for specifying the type
of information you propose.
  
  >The purpose of this proposed header is twofold.
  >1. To make it easier to design agents that may create compilations
  >of existing work automatically, or to search for only copyright-free
  >material.
  
	PICS has this goal directly in mind.

>2. To make it clear to consumers (via a popup, for instance)
  >that certain material is copyright when they perform actions such
  >as printing or saving a page.

	This type of functionality is already included with respect to
"appropriateness" in IE.  


  >Briefly, one includes a header or META tag such as
  >Copy-Control: v 1.0 p 1 s 1 q 2 u http://some.org/copy.html
  >or
  ><META HTTP-EQUIV="Copy-Control" CONTENT="v 1.0 p 2 s 2 q 2">
  >where the values for p(rint), s(ave), q(uote) are given
  >0 = forbidden, 1 = conditional, 2 = allowed.

To map something similar to PICS, consider the case in which Mark Twain
wrote the material at http://www.twain.com/story.html . He also has a page
describing the copyright statement in fuller detail at
http://www.twain.com/IP-notice.html . He is going to use the system you
specify with respect to "Print", "Save", and "Quote", where the specified
values represent 0 - disallowed, 1 - conditionally allowed, 2 -
unconditionally allowed:

(PICS-1.1 "http://www.wipo.org/v1.5"
  by "Mark Twain"
  labels on "1994.11.05T08:15-0500"
         for "http://www.twain.com/story.html"
         full "http://www.twain.com/IP-notice.html"
         ratings (print 1 save 1 quote 2))

Some of the benefits of using PICS:

1. Multiple distribution methods (embedded within the document, transported
by the server, or from a label bureaus). This improves the management of
the copyright information. (i.e. Organizations can control the use and
access to their IPR from their server. Organizations can create "audit"
spiders.)
2. Generic labeling (implicitly rates every URL for which the specified URL
is the prefix of) This improves the management of the copyright
information, since I don't have to label every document in a directory if
they have a similar status.
3. Capabilities for digital signatures are provided.
4. It is being widely leverage in Web development.



___________________________________________________________
Joseph Reagle Jr.  Personal: http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html
Policy Analyst     World Wide Web Consortium:    http://www.w3.org

Received on Sunday, 24 November 1996 08:28:56 UTC