Electronic copyright management systems: requirements, players and technologies

Abstract

The large diffusion of multimedia products distributed through CD-ROMs (off-line) and the Internet (on-line) is raising many concerns regarding the preservation of authors' rights. On the other hand, these new publication methods appear to be very attractive for increasing business opportunities. The problem of electronic management of copyright has thus become very important and many projects are being carried out worldwide to deal with it. The aim of this paper is to survey the main concepts which electronic copyright management systems should be based on. In particular the requirements, the players and the key technologies are presented.