Rights Management Information

• Author: Mark Perry
• Pages: 251-266

Rights

Management

Information

Mark Perry

In the

SAVOY:

Printed

by

Henry

Lintot,

Law-Printer

to the

King's

mosl

excellent

Majesty;

for D.

BROWNE

at the

Black

Swan;

].

WORRALL

at

the

Dove,

both near Temple-Bar;

and A.

MILLAR

at Bu-

chanan's

Head opposite Catherine

Afreet

in the

Strand,

1757'

A.

INFORMATIO

N

IN

BRIE

F

The

Rights Management Information

(RMI)

of a

work2

is

simply data

that

provides identification

of

rights

related

to

that

work, either directly

or

indi-

rectly.3

RMI in

this

sense

is not a new

concept.

In the

realm

of

distribution

of

creative works,

it may be

seen

as the

economic analogue

to the

right

of

attribution within moral rights jurisprudence,

or

even permissions

on files

Thanks

to

Michelle Alton

and

Ambrese Montague (UWO

law

class

of

2007)

for

their research assistance,

and the Law

Foundation

of

Canada.

This

"RMI"

is

from

the

front

of

Lord

Chief

Baron Gilbert's

"A

treatise

of

Tenure

in Two

Parts," 1757.

As an

aside, Lintot

and

Millar were well known

publisher/

booksellers

in

London

at the

time.

The

term "work"

is

being used here

to

restrict

this

discussion

to RMI in

data

that

may be

subject

to

copyright.

For

example, "Mark Perry" indicates

the

authorship

of

this

paper, which

may

lead

to

assumptions regarding moral rights

or

economic rights

in the

absence

of

other more detailed indications.

251

i

2

3

EIGHT

252 IN THE

PUBLIC

INTEREST:

THE

FUTURE

OF

CANADIAN

COPYRIGHT

LAW

in

Unix.4

Since

the

beginning

of

time,

or at

least

since

the

beginning

of the

creation

of

artistic

works, authors

and

owners

of

works have wished

to be

identified,

and so

have

put

their name with

the

title

on the

front cover,

as

well

as the

inside

of the

book.

In

recent centuries such identifications have

typically

been accompanied

by

information

specifically

related

to the

rights

in

the

works, such

as by the

insertion

of

copyright notices, publishers'

in-

formation,

dates, disclaimers, permissions,

ISBN,

acknowledgements,

and

so

forth,

that

are

typically

inserted

on the

verso

of the

title

page inside

the

work

in

printed volumes.

An

early example

can be

seen above.

In the

last

couple

of

decades,

given

the

growth

in the

digital market

in

particular,

the

types

of

RMI

accompanying works have shown increased variety,

and

some

would

even

say

that

RMI

only became meaningful

in the

digital

era.

This

paper addresses some

of the

technologies

that

are

being used

to

attach

RMI

to

works, especially works

distributed

in a

digital format.

It

also looks

at

the

potential

RMI-related

treaty

obligations,

and

examines suggested

and

implemented legal protection

for

these

rights

in

Canada.

B.

TECHNOLOGIES

RMI

is one of the

cornerstones

of

systems

that

regulate

the

rights

held

in

digital works. From

a

technical perspective,

it has

much

in

common

with watermarking

and

steganography,

both

of

which provide informa-

tion over

and

above

that

contained

in the

primary work. Steganography

differs

in

that

the

information

is

generally hidden

from

all but the

intend-

ed

recipient, whereas watermarks

are

typically "obvious"

in

printed

paper

works,

or

reasonably easy (for

the

technically minded)

to find in

digital

works. Such information

can be

embedded

in all

types

of

works,

although

the

technology

is yet to be

perfected

and may

involve

the

introduction

of

undesirable artifacts upon reproduction

in

some

cases.5

Under

the

Secure

Digital Music Initiative

(SDMI),

a

number

of

watermark technologies were

being

contemplated, and, despite

the

failure

of

SDMI,

many watermarking

technologies

are in use

today.6

For

example, BlueSpike Inc. developed

the

Jonathan

Weinberg, "Hardware-Based

ID,

Right Management,

and

Trusted

Systems"

uses

the

Unix

example,

in N.

Elkin-Karen

&

N.W. Netanel, eds.

The

Commodification

of

Information

(New

York:

Aspen Publishers, 1999)

at

343-64.

See

Brian

Dipert, "Security scheme

doesn't

hold water

(marking)"

(2000) 45:26

EDN35

(21

December 2000).

SDMI

seemed promising with 2oo-plus companies

and

organizations partici-

pating

to find the

answer

to the

problems posed

to

music publishers

by

digital

technologies,

but

environments such

as

Napster

or

Gnutella overtook

the

4

5

6