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From Sticks to Carrots: CCC's
Rightsphere Moves Relicensing Beyond Fear Factors |
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9 June 2006 |
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Content relicensing has been a poor stepdaughter in the
eyes of many publishers, incremental revenues that trickle
in when their audiences decide to toe the line on copyright
compliance. But what if learning what your redistribution
rights were was...fun? Copyright Clearance Center's Rightsphere provides enterprises with a powerful tool to
help users feel good about content relicensing - and in the
process encourage publishers to think more positively about
users being distribution agents for premium content. |
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What rights do you have to
redistribute copyrighted content? Oftentimes more than you may
guess. It can be confusing enough in the Web world to figure
this out when you're trying to do the right thing with
respecting copyrights. But in the world of enterprises it can
be downright daunting to figure out how overlapping content
licensing schemes and special-case licensing apply to any given
document. Yes, we could punt and hit the "send" key without
checking what's an allowed use or mosey down to the copier. But
darn, those compliance officers are right down the hall...
What's a well-meaning corporate citizen to do? With the
announcement of
Copyright
Clearance Center's
Rightssphere rights advisory and management service, the
answer to this question is probably "the right thing."
Rightsphere is a system that integrates a simple browser icon
with a database of very granular data on subscriptions and
reuse rights pertaining to personnel at a company for licensed
content. Click on the Rightsphere icon when you're looking at a
page and it will tell you very clearly whether you're in the
clear to use it, whether there are restrictions, or whether you
will have to purchase rights prior to redistributing it. If an
ecommerce option is needed, it's a simple click away,
resembling the options provided in CCC's RightsLink
media-oriented ecommerce product. The interface provided by
Rightsphere has been well designed to provide a very positive
and easy-to-understand licensing experience, emphasizing the
"cans" of what can be done as much as possible.
With Rightsphere it becomes much easier to provide copyright
compliance in an enterprise environment while enabling
copyrighted content to be shared quickly and effectively with
colleagues who need to be in the know as soon as possible. In
doing so, publishers secure incremental revenues very
efficiently. But most importantly, through its development of
Rightsphere CCC created an infrastructure that can take into
account overlapping subscriptions and relicensing rights. This
data can allow an enterprise to take a closer look at how
content is being licensed and used - and to consider how to
strike licensing deals with distributors that are most
advantageous to their operations. This "carrot" of potential
savings is bound to make the "stick" of content relicensing
compliance much more appealing for enterprises to consider -
especially when there's a user-friendly interface that takes
corporate librarians out of the rights-checking loop whenever
possible.
Content relicensing is one of the major opportunities for
publishers that has been sorely neglected as a revenue
stream. Peers trust their peers to recommend the content
that's most worth using - a crucial factor in enterprises as
much as it is in consumer markets. Rightsphere demonstrates
that when there are adequate technologies in place peer
distribution can become a powerful force for new ways of
looking at users as partners in the publishing process without
the negativity that surrounds many publishers' thinking about
redistribution. A few key implications to bear in mind:
- Efficient licensing leads to better content services.
Several years ago some bright software developers came up
with a great idea: create a system that would help investment
banks to understand at a very fine level how their licensing
of financial data feeds was producing overlapping costs. They
struggled at first until they struck on a client that would
let them keep a percentage of whatever savings they could
generate for the firm. Several millions in savings later,
their client was very happy and a new business was off and
running. The track record of market data management systems
shows that detailed analysis of content usage not only saves
money but also creates an environment in which content gets
used more efficiently - leading to more effective services
from content vendors.
- Efficient licensing opens the door to a new
appreciation of premium content's value. The unfortunate
progression of legislation to restrict the licensing of
content technologies used to distribute music online in the
U.S. (weblog
coverage) reflects the attitudes of music publishers that
are dead set against giving users control over distribution.
It's interesting to see how in enterprise environments a
premium is placed on content that can be shared efficiently
with peers while it's a fearsome thing in consumer content.
Online publishers should consider how enabling users to help
their peers license content legitimately can lead to a much
higher appreciation of their products' value. This is
especially important given how much content enterprises
consume from the open Web: your online users wear many hats.
- Efficient licensing leads to more personal
relationships with audiences. While many enterprise
aggregators of premium content are already well on their way
to moving profits away from content licensing and towards the
licensing of sophisticated business solutions, content
licensing is still at the heart of their revenues.
Rightsphere signals an opportunity for content distributors
to think about how they can build up a service relationship
with users through their sharing of content with peers. Right
now Rightsphere options are focused primarily on packaging
text for reuse, but its use opens the door to licensing
sophisticated value-add services provided by aggregators and
other value-add providers to peers of subscribers. Given the
presence of relicensing services on the Web servicing
consumers the possibilities for enhances contextual revenues
from relicensing are bound to have broadening appeal as these
services continue to evolve.
Rightsphere is just one of a number of new approaches to
content license management that puts the accent on the positive
aspects of content sharing in environments where it's
mission-critical to do so. The "fear" factor that usually
surrounds relicensing issues will predominate for a while, but
aggressive publishers and content distributors should recognize
that with improved management of redistribution the carrots of
delivering content and services in personalized contexts are
going to be a lot more compelling than the sticks. In today's
content markets getting content into the right context as
efficiently as possible is the key to better margins and more
productive client relationships. It's time for publishers to
recognize the full power of this proposition and to learn how
to exploit users as content distributors as effectively as
possible.
-
John Blossom
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