ISO/IEC DIS 21000-20

Description / Abstract: This part of ISO/IEC 21000 specifies a language for representing contracts in the Multimedia Framework formed for the transaction of MPEG-21 Digital Items or services related to the MPEG-21 Framework.

The Contract Expression Language (CEL) aims at digitally representing the agreements made in an environment of ISO/IEC 21000 use. These contracts include those about both transactions of content packed as Digital Items as well as services provided around this content.

The range of contracts under scope is:

— Contracts about transactions on rights for the exploitation of content as MPEG-21 Digital Items;

— Contracts about the provision of MPEG-21-based services, i.e. delivery, identification, encryption, search and others.

The aspects represented by CEL contracts include:

— The textual clauses, in natural language as they are in the narrative contract, duly structured;

The operative clauses, as computer language expressions.

However CEL may also be used as electronic format for contracts on the trade of media rights also beyond the MPEG framework.

The main aspect of CEL contracts are the operative clauses, represented as machine readable deontic expressions, i.e. the agreed permissions, obligations, and prohibitions, and the associated terms and conditions.

Besides, the CEL contract includes the identification of the contract itself, its parties, and the possible relationships with other contracts.

Among the provided features there is the possibility to insert the textual version of the contract and/or of specific clauses, in particular for the case in which the original contract is narrative, i.e. written in natural language. Also it is possible to add metadata related to any contract entity and to have encryption of the whole contract, or any-sub-part of it. As electronic format for a contract document, the agreement of the parties can be proved by their digital signature.

Eventually CEL provides to the media companies the basic means for the collection of knowledge on held rights, also derived from multiple contracts, as rights port-folio, for business management purposes.

Various potential benefits can be associated to the use of CEL. Firstly CEL can support the business of media companies, for product placement and maximizing reuse of archive content, implying also cost reductions in all rights related activities, e.g. rights clearance. Afterwards, it supports the respect of copyright laws with respect to new exploitation technologies, also by contributing to the reduction of mistakes with respect to contract compliance, implying decreasing number of controversies and other cost reductions. In general CEL aims at increasing the quality of rights information, which gets more reliable and can be integrated with other metadata in standard way. This can bring even to improve working conditions and all the decision processes within media companies.

With respect to the first edition (2013), this second edition of CEL provides: some strengthening of the core contract part; some reordering within the extension for the exploitation of intellectual property rights, also by completing the set of facts available for specifying conditions and the addition of a simple payment and notification extension. The relationship with acts defined in ISO/IEC 21000 part 5 (REL) has been refined. Finally, a clear mechanism for defining further future extensions is in place.