[Odrl-version2] DMP, TRU, BEUC, - and ODRL

[Steven Rowat]

Hi ODRL2 list,

Stephane provided the following links:

>http://www.digital-media-project.com/

>http://www.dmpf.org/open/dmp0190.pdf


Thank you Stephane, I agree they are both interesting groups.

For what it's worth, I'll give my own (rather hasty) opinion of each, after
a brief reading of some of their material:

The first, the Digital Media Project, seems to me to be adding a whole new
layer of abstraction - 'Traditional Rights and Usages' (TRU). They wish to
ensure that traditional use (non-Internet) of content is respected within
the digital DRM models. While laudatory in principle, I think they're too
late. The Internet is, to adopt an analogy that has been made elsewhere
about the evolution of life, like an airplane in flight over the ocean that
needs repairs. We don't have the choice of putting the plane down on the
ground. It's going to stay in flight, and we need to make those repairs
*while the plane is in the air*. In other words I think the whole thing is
going too fast for this group's main thesis to be respected. That said, I
believe many of the TRU ideas will be useful to understand and will affect,
if we let them, what happens in ODRL or other DRM. (See a table of TRUs at
http://www.chiariglione.org/contrib/040102chiariglione01.htm)

I personally found the second document, the position paper of the BEUC (the
'European Consumers' Organization'), more compelling, and feel that some
interaction between ODRL and the BEUC may have potential good results. In
my opinion, this paper gives many well reasoned points about fair use,
privacy, and other issues; some expressed very succinctly. While in some
places their paper has a doomsday feel to it - warning that the current
decisions about hardwiring and other DRM contract issues are very bad ideas
- I feel that most of what they look for is in fact provided by ODRL
(potentially, or already); and that they might become a strong supported of
ODRL, if they knew more about it. In fact, since I saw no mention of ODRL
in the document, it's possible that they are not aware of ODRL at all yet.

But even without such contact or mutual support, I think ODRL, and the
larger community of content creators and users, would benefit from ODRL's
being able to satisfy the concerns the BEUC have listed in this paper.

Steven Rowat


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