A Workshop covering the Traditional Rights and Usages (TRU) of media users is presently being planned by the Digital Media Project to be held in Los Angeles from 26-27 April 2004. Papers and presentations are solicited from any individuals claiming special knowledge of the topic. Some contributions will be offered at the TRU Workshop while others will be made available online as part of the lead-up.

Presentations are solicited on such topics as:

1. Use cases of analogue and digital media rights

2. Critical examples of traditional rights and usages

3. Relevant legislative backgrounds (Berne, WIPO treaties, national legislations)

4. Role of legislation as a complement to the DMP approach

5. Lessons drawn from approaches used by other initiatives

6. Simulation examples of the DMP approach

7. Views of different industries

8. Statements of support/expressions of concern.

The second day is expected to be spent in breakaway sessions contributing focused inputs for the ongoing DMP effort as well as the planning process for any subsequent TRU Workshop(s). DMP also has a General Assembly scheduled shortly after the Workshop and so seeks exposure to a variety of views.

Deadlines

27 January 2004 - Send statement of intention to attend

31 March 2004- Send one-page abstract.

e-mail contact - project@chiariglione.org

About the Digital Media Project

The Digital Media Project (DMP) is a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to promote continuing successful development, deployment and use of Digital Media that respect the rights of creators and rights holders to exploit their works, the wish of end users to fully enjoy the benefits of Digital Media and the interests of various value-chain players to provide products and services, according to the principles of the Digital Media Manifesto.

As part of its mission the DMP develops recommended actions, recommended practices and technical specifications. Part of the current work plan of the DMP is the development of technical specification for an interoperable DRM platform and interoperable end-user devices, and recommended practices for end-to-end conformance.

The DMP considers the mapping of traditional rights and usages (TRU) enjoyed by users of the digital media space as the major tool for developing requirements to be employed in the specification of the DMP Interoperable DRM Platform and DMP Interoperable End-User Devices. For present purposes 'users of the digital media space' includes individuals and entities who create, own rights in or use/consume digital content, as well as all actors who play a role in making content available for use and consumption, such as distributors, retailers, internet service providers, and manufacturers of consumer devices (both hardware and software). Accordingly, this workshop intends to be an opportunity to share and get feedback on the DMP approach from the wider community, and start the process of identifying and documenting TRUs and deriving requirements.

The workshop will be followed by the second meeting of the Digital Media Project. The results of the workshop will constitute a major input to the drafting of a Call for Contributions on the same topic. This is planned to be released at the end of the second DMP meeting. Responses to the Call will be considered at the third DMP meeting on 2004/07/28-30.

For further information related to the TRU Workshop see http://www.chiariglione.org/project/truws/index.htm

Leonardo Chiariglione is the founder of the Digital Media Project and has held numerous leadership roles in digital media standardization projects, incuding Convenor of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).