RepoMMan DRM Literature Review and Report

Awre, Christopher L.

Generic Work

RepoMMan DRM Literature Review and Report

Public Pending review

The development of digital repositories involves the management of potentially a wide range of digital content types. These types can be classified by their MIME type or by their purpose and role amongst other means of organisation. In all cases, though, there is IPR in the content generated. As with all IPR this needs to be managed. This management is often carried out by the copyright owner of the content, or their appointed representative: for example, a book publisher will often manage the IPR on a book by one of their authors. Digital repositories are a technology intended to store digital materials generated and owned by institutions and their staff and students. Institutional IPR polices may have different nuances on exactly how copyright ownership is managed, but the IPR in the content needs to be managed regardless. Digital repositories provide both a set of challenges and a potential solution to enabling this management. This is particularly the case where the content will be exposed over the Internet for sharing with others: digital materials can be copied with relative ease and there is a need to ensure as far as is possible that their IPR is not breached. There may also be additional rights that the copyright owner wishes to lay down as a condition of access and/or use. The need to manage these rights has led to the emergence of the field of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

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