Workshop on Technology of
Terms and Conditions
September 24-26, 1996
Workshop Summary: Technology Issues for Terms and Conditions
James R. Davis, Xerox PARC, and Judith L. Klavans, Columbia University
Some thirty experts in the areas of law, publishing, computing, librarianship, economics, and public policy met at a National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop on terms and conditions for digital objects that took place September 24-26, 1996 at the Arden Homestead conference facility of Columbia University. The workshop was organized by James R. Davis of Xerox PARC and Judith L. Klavans, Director of the Center for Research on Information Access of Columbia University.
The goal was three-fold: (1) to bring together leaders and experts from several disciplines to explore perspectives and pressing issues in intellectual property as viewed from different positions; (2) to formulate a set of common priorities for research and development proposals; and (3) to take a leading role in suggesting to funding agencies directions for research as seen from these various perspectives. In addition to these three larger goals, the technology experts attending were also seeking guidance and information on how to formulate technical languages for expressing these needs; such formalisms are essential both to express requirements on users (for example, who can access the data, e.g. students, alumni, anyone), and to express conditions on use (for example, can the data be just viewed, copied, freely distributed).
Among the issues identified were: the relation between contract and copyright law; pricing information in the networked environment; ambiguity in interpretation; the rights and obligations of content users as well as providers, for example, taxonomies of fair use; and metadata implications.
D-Lib Magazine, October 1996, ISSN 1082-9873, Clips and Pointers