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I name my system ‘Distributed Intellectual
Property Rights (DIPR)’ which is slightly longwinded but a
more accurate than continuing to use the term copyright. Copying-rights
only form a small part of the system.
In addition to recording and regulating the intellectual
rights to the intellectual product, as described in the previous
section, the DIPR system also considers the following requirements
to be necessary for an effective scheme.
- Recognise that it takes work to formulate and present a new idea
or intellectual product and that the creator of that product has
rights over their creation: the right to have it identified as
their work, the right to trade in it with others.
- Help users to identify the product and its creator and the consumer’s
obligation to reward the creator for using the product.
- Protect the free flow of information.
- Use technology to make the legal route for obtaining the product
easier than the illegal route!
- Protect the rights and privacy of all parties: creators, artists,
producers, distributors, and consumers.
- Allow the new system to evolve from the today’s practices
and standards in such a way that it can accommodate all current
digital products as well as new formats. If possible the new system
should include existing product identification systems and enhance
or extend current Electronic Copyright
Management Systems.
- Use the open standards and interconnectivity of cyberspace to
maximum advantage.
The first principle
behind the DIPR system is that the acquisition of some identified
rights in an intellectual product by a consumer will involve
the creator/owner and the consumer exchanging unique
identifications. These identifications will form part of the
digital manifestation of the product and will also be recorded in
secure databases as part of the regulation process. These unique,
regulated, physical, identifications will re-establish a true physical
component in the digital form of an intellectual product. Thus:
Digital product = intellectual component +
physical identifiers
The creator
will own one of these unique, tangible, identifiers which will identify
them as the author and the principle rights holder and the consumer
will own the second which in turn establishes their identified right
to access the intangible intellectual component.
The second principle is that, after this exchange
has been completed, unlimited copies in the name of this registered
consumer are allowed, providing that the identifications and the
product remain unmodified and intact.
In the following section I give a
more detailed description of the system for regulating this exchange
of identifications.
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