1. Development of Strategy for the ePub Library of the Vienna
University to maximize the profits: Concerning the rights
management By Dr. Michael Hahsler [Reviewed by L.R. Amarakoon
2. Contents Introduction Summary of the paper Definitions of
Information Goods and Digital Technology Key learning Industrial
applications, if any ? Your personal analysis and point of views
Recommendations Conclusions
3. Introduction The aim of this study is to develop best
possible strategies for the digital library of the Vienna
University Digital Library ePub, concerning rights management in
order to maximize the profits (based on the assumption that ePub
would sell its content. Through the digital technology the global
economies have totally changed. The technological developments , as
well as the dramatic reduction in costs of copying and distribution
make rights management difficult. However, through illicit copying
this technology also offers many great new opportunities for the
publishing industry.
4. Introduction (Contd...) This paper also explains what
information goods and the problem with the digital technology,
digital libraries and digital rights management Present few case
studies of other DL depicting what strategies they use to sell
their products. Based on them the research team had made
recommendations on suitable strategies for the e-Pub of WU to make
profits related to rights management.
5. - The first part of the paper describes information goods
and the problems associated with digital technology. -The 2nd part
describe what digital libraries and their properties and its
functionality. - Then it introduce us to digital rights management
and Architecture of DRM systems. - Digital Millennium Copy Right
Act of 1998 is also described. - 04 case studies of other digital
libraries are presented. - Presented 05 strategies for the e-Pub
library of the WU recommended by the team, based on the above parts
of this paper. Summary of the paper
6. Information Goods and Digital Technology Definition of
information good: An information good is anything that can be
digitized. This can be a book, a record, a movie, an image etc.
They are also called digital content Definition of IP: IP refers to
creations of the mind: Inventions, literacy and artistic works, and
symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce
7. Information goods and the digital technology (Contd...) :
Properties of Information Goods: Information as experience goods:
Information goods are experience goods . At the of purchasing them
customers always want know what it is like first, in order to
determine whether it fulfils his/her requirements. But if the owner
gives away the material he wants to sell in order to show people
what they are, how can the owner make profits then?. There are
solutions for this problem: - Previewing and browsing - Reviews -
Reputation
8. Information goods and the digital technology : Properties of
Information Goods (Contd...) Cost Structures of information goods -
Information goods have high fixed costs of production and low
marginal cost of reproduction. Ex. Production of a Hollywood movie
is very expensive. Reproduction cost are very low. With IP, the
upfront costs are what its all about,(Bill Gates) ...Say a piece of
software cost $10m to create and the marginal costs, because its
going to be distributed electronically , are basically zero. Once
costs of development have been recouped , every single additional
unit is pure profit.But some one comes with a significantly
superior product, your demand can literally almost drop to zero.
Wall Street Journal, Aug23,2001.
9. Information goods and the digital technology : Properties of
Information Goods (Contd...) Production costs, warehouse expense
and reproduction costs: - Production Costs The cost of production
of an information good typically has the property that it is very
costly to produce the first copy and very cheap to produced the
rest of the copies. - Warehouse expense The costs for the storage
of information goods depend on the size, duration of the storage
and medium where they are saved. Since storing files is very cheap
nowadays these costs are normally very minimal. - Reproduction
costs Reproduction costs depend mainly on technical aspects.
Normally they are very low compared to production costs.
10. Information goods and the digital technology : Properties
of Information Goods (Contd...) Information as a public good - In
contrast to private goods, pure public goods are non-rival and
non-excludable. Non-rival a persons consumption doesnt diminish the
amount available to other people; Non-excludable - One person
cannot exclude another person from consuming the good. National
defence would be an example for such a pure public good. There is a
difference between the above two properties. Non- rivalness is a
property of the good itself. By the very nature of the good the
same amount of i.e. Defence are available to everyone in an
area.
11. Digital libraries and their properties Definition Digital
libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including
the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual
access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and
ensure the persistence overtime of collections of digital works so
that they are readily and economically available for use by a
defined community or set of communities DLF (1998). The term
digital library has a many potential meanings: It can be a
collection of material in organized electronic form that one might
find in a traditional library through to the collection of all
digital information along with the services that make that
information useful to all users. Primary goal of a DL is to provide
universal access to information goods.
12. Properties of Digital Libraries Services offered: A DL is
more than a collection of materials. It offers number of services
to its readers. Those services offered are: Services to support
management of collection, services to provide replicated and
reliable storage, services to aid in query formulation and
execution, services to assist in name resolution and location etc.
Collection of information resources: The information objects that
provide the content are the basis for a digital library, which are
digital objects. They may also be in other media, i.e. Paper
editions, but represented in the library via digital means.
Supporting users deal with information objects: assist users by
satisfying their needs and requirements for access, management,
storage and manipulation of the variety of information stored in
the collection
13. DRM The traditional rights management of physical material
was easier because the fact that these materials where physical and
not digital . But digital materials. because of the ease of digital
reproduction and transmission there are serious breaches of rights
law. 1 st generation DRM focused on security and encryption to
solve the problem of unauthorized copying. This security and
encryption has the purpose to lock the content and limit its
distribution to only those who pay. However, 2nd generation of DRM
covers the description, identification, trading, protection,
monitoring and tracking of all forms of rights usages.
14. Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 DMCA is needed
because it protects the intellectual work from copyright
violations. As researchers point out it could adversely affect
research competitiveness: In section 1201 of the DMCA it says No
person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively
controls access to work protected under this title.
15. Key Learning DRM technology can prevent normal uses of
works protected by copyright law, such as printing or excising
portions for quotation. For libraries and schools to serve their
educational, research, and information roles, the public must be
able to use works in the full range of ways envisioned by the
Copyright Act in its limitations and exceptions. Eliminating fair
use and other exceptions in Copyright Law that underpin education,
criticism, and scholarship. Apart from that it pose a serious
threat to the ability of the public to access and use works in the
public domain. The DRMs have the potential to protect works
indefinitely. This permanent lock up of public domain material runs
contrary to the principle of balance in copyright law.
16. Key Learning (contd) They even threaten to lock up and
permanently render works inaccessible because data stored in
proprietary DRM formats is at a much greater risk of being lost
once the playback media become obsolete. Due to the lack of
inter-operability in DRM related services, there is the potential
that large collections of content will not be able to be accessed
at all. This has a serious affect on the availability and
accessibility of information and shrinks what is available via the
public domain.
17. Industrial Applications, If any Using digital licenses is
the core concept in DRM Instead of buying the digital content, the
user purchase a license permitting some rights to him/her. This
license is a digital data file that spells out usage rules for the
digital content. These can be described by number of criteria, such
as frequency of access, expiration date, limits of transfer to
other devices etc. However, these rules can be combined to enforce
certain business model for a industry, such as rental or
subscription, try-before-buy, pay-peruse etc. This technology which
controls the use and distribution of electronic files- has been
traditionally used by the commercial book publishing and music
industries. DRM in these fields is justified as a protection of
intellectual properties (IP). However, now that DRM is being used
by Academic Institutions such as WU, technical organizations and
scientific and engineering publications, one can questioned who
should be the rightful owner of the IP. ePub Library has to
implement Digital Rights Management Systems (DRMs) together with
technological protection measures (TPMs) in order to make profits
in respect to DRM of electronic media they held in the library
collection.
18. Personal analysis and point of view It is observed that
digital libraries can improve the access to information in a large
scale. Information in digital form available on line through
internet creates a big problem to intellectual content
provides/owners. Digital resources in libraries are available from
a home computer or handheld devices such as Smart Phones, iPads,
iPhones or a Tab etc. These advances in the technology create new
opportunities and markets for content owners and publishes etc.
Although it is easier and less expensive for content owner to
distribute a digital good rapidly, but beside the thread through
illicit copying this technology also offers many great new
opportunities for the publishing industries. Hence DRM poses one of
the greatest challenges for content communities. The present DRM
covers the
19. Personal analysis and point of view (Contd...) It is no
doubt that libraries support copyright , which is called balanced
copyright. But nowadays they are concerned at the growing imbalance
of copyright laws in favor of rightsholders. Digital rights
management systems(DRMs) together with technological protection
measures (TPMs) have become a controversial topic of discussion
around copyrights of electronic media. Digital networked
environment makes copying and distribution of information far
easier for
20. Personal analysis and point of view (Contd...) As observed,
in order to protect the interests of copyright holders (DRMs)
restrict the use of digital files (usually valuable original
intellectual property such as movies, music, etc.) These
technologies can control file access (number of views, length of
views), altering, sharing, copying, printing, and saving. These
technologies may be contained within the operating system, program
software, or in the actual hardware of a device. DRM systems take
two approaches to securing content. -The first is "containment," an
approach where the content is encrypted in a shell so that it can
only be accessed by authorized users. -The second is "marking," the
practice of placing a watermark, flag, or an electronic tag on
content as a signal to a device that the media is copy
protected.
21. Recommended Strategies for the ePub The research team
recommend the following strategies for the ePub the digital library
of the WU Strategy 1: giving away ePubs content Give away a table
of content and only some of the chapters of the literature. Ex.
Give away the first 25 pages of each work for free like
dissertation.com does. Epub could also make these 25 pages
available for download in PDF format or post it online. Users could
browse through these free chapters to experience the good and see
what it is worth to them in order to buy it or not. Strategy 2:
Demand for repeat views Post the whole document online. The user
would only have the privilege to view the content over the
internet. The value of the downloaded PDF file would be that it
could be printed out and read whenever the customer wants. Compared
to the online version option value is added to the PDF version of
the book. The PDF or printed version of the book satisfy the users
demand for repeat views.
22. Recommended Strategies (Contd) Strategy 3 : Similar
products which are not identical Users dont want to repeat viewing
the same image over and over again, they want variations. Epub
could give away the older material of their holdings for free in
order to sell the rest. Users could experience the quality of Epubs
content and this could raise the demand for similar products
Strategy 4 : Complimentary goods Offering the Index or search
service for free is another way to increase the demand for
content.
23. Recommendations of Strategies (Contd) Strategy 5 : Charge a
certain amount of money for offering access to their whole or a
special part of their content fro a limited period of time as what
Academic Library does. ePub too could make its materials accessible
for i.e. 24 hours or even 7 days for a certain amount. All these
possible strategies could perhaps also be combined. User can choose
whether he/she wants to pay a big amount to gain access to the
whole material, or pay a smaller amount to get only a special work
or even only some of the chapters
24. Scenario in Sri Lanka with regards to Digital Libraries A
digital library is a library in which collections are stored in
digital formats and accessed through computers. That is to say,
digital content may be stored locally and accessed remotely through
computer networks. It is observed that digital library services in
Sri Lanka are offered by the following organizations: - National
Science Foundation (NSF) : NSF erepository has been launched to
create global visibility and accessibility to scholarly research in
Sri Lanka. Registered users can upload papers.
25. Scenario in Sri Lanka with regards to Digital Libraries
(Contd) The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka Open University of
Sri Lanka (OUSL) Digital content of Theses, abstracts of papers,
past question papers, OUSL journal issues can be access online
using the following URLhttp://digital.ou.ac.lk EduLankas
(www.eduLanka.lk) This is the largest online education web site
with digital content in Sri Lanka, which is popular among students.
Provides digital content related to ebooks, online lessons, teacher
information, education related course information etc.
26. National Library of Sri Lanka (NL) It has commenced a
Scenario in Sri Lanka with regards project to develop a digital
library. Started a document scanningto Digital Libraries (Contd)
project with the aim of providing access to readers regardless of
the location, materials related to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans. Dept
of National Archives and the Museum Library of Sri Lanka started
digitizing 20-30 years ago. However in Sri Lanka it is observed
that DRM is in its infancy. It is recommended that NILIS and all
the other University libraries should get-together and establish a
e-library consortium, since Sri Lanka has a 20-30 yrs experience in
such consortium for printed publications and information and proved
successful venture. Digitization project can be commenced as a
collaborative efforts of this suggested digital library consortium.
The consortium can decide on a
27. Information goods are experience goods. In order to buy an
information good users Conclusions have to know what it is like
first an if it fulfils their requirements. But if the content owner
gives away the materials he wants to sell in order to show people
what they are, then the question arises of making profits. There
are solutions to this problems. Content owners have to offer
opportunities to let users browse through their products. Ex. Movie
industry solve this problem by offering previews. Reviewing
products and providing those reviews to the users It is a standard
practice in the information
28. Conclusions (Contd) Increasing profits is the motive for
DRM schemes for those who impose them. Their profits is a side
issue when millions of peoples freedoms at stake; Though it is not
wrong to expect profits, it cannot justify denying the public
control over its technology. It is observed that there are
campaigns launched in the developed countries such as Defective by
Design exposing DRMencumbered devices and media. There are protests
against DRM since 2006.
