Semantic Copyright arises in the context of the development and implementation of research and development of the project called "Authors 3.0", with the support and funding from the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce of Spain, through the “Plan Avanza 2”, although its results are intended to go beyond it.
Essentially, this project aims to create an online Intellectual Property Registry based on semantic technology, so that it can provide information regarding copyright, licensing and authorized uses. In this regard, the system shall transmit this information under interoperable standards through digital IDs and applications and network services, for communicating, exchanging, accessing and displaying on computer and other devices’ screens.
The project has the following participants, with their respective roles:
- : coordinator, who brings expertise and its own registration system, where the results of the project will be integrated.
- : his Ontological Engineering Group will develop a semantic ontology applied to the context of copyrighted works.
- : to contribute its experience in documentary and dissemination of scientific production in Spanish.
Results and value added
The social interest of the project, regardless of its technological innovation, lies on the solution it proposed regarding current problems occurring on the Internet between content creators and copyright holders, and users:
* For creators, the incorporation of semantic web elements will increase, firstly, the protection of inalienable moral rights that belong to every author. That is, systems and tools such as content-sharing systems, office applications, web browsers, viewers of contents, etc. will provide reliable and up-to-dated information about the authorship of the work, its title, and year of publication, including other metadata as tentative topics or keywords.
The solution will also enable these elements to interact between each other, so it is possible to access to other works created by the same author, to related topics or concepts, to track citation control, with the result of a strengthening of the recognition of the author and his work. This scenario can be applied to all kind of works, whether created by more than one person, collectively or in collaboration, and it increases the confidence of rightholders when it comes to disseminating their works on digital networks that respect the rights reserved and granted by them.
* For copyright holders, when providing reliable information on the exploitation rights and other rightholders, they are able to control and monitor compliance with them in the digital environment, allowing personalized and automated function (through systems and software) based on their desires. This means that, when properly implemented, restrictions or permits may be articulated based on the terms of use of the content, as defined by the rights holders. Therefore, a rightholder can authorize the reproduction of a particular file, its distribution or transmission. Thanks to this system, the protection is located in the work itself, not on the technology or protocol used (eg: Peer-to-Peer networks). Moreover, the solution can be extended to enhance pay systems, whether in the form of micro-payments or through advertising, just to give two examples.
* For users: The main advantage that this system would bring to Internet users will be legal certainty. Currently, files and content circulating on the Net does not provide any information about the copyrights involved, so that users has no way to reliably know who are the owners or what are the granted rights. Indeed, the Law establishes, with some exceptions, a reservation of rights to the creator, although we must also recognize the gradual extension of alternative licensing schemes, such as Creative Commons or other free software licenses. Thanks to these tools, creators permit (grant) some uses for free and rightholders authorizes certain uses against third parties, although, nowadays this information is not provided reliably and, even less, is currently interpreted by machines or software applications in order to act accordingly.
