Distributed Intellectual Property Rights - Summary

By: Nicholas Bentley

Key features of the Distributed Intellectual Property Rights System:

• Identification system for all types of intellectual products.
• Distributed system of rights identification offices on the Internet
• No central rights management control.
• Personal information protected.
• A Property Rights Descriptor (PRD) field represents both creators and users.
• The Distributed Intellectual Property Rights (DIPR) system is based on a theoretical model of organisms interacting in an evolutionarily stable environment.
• The limitation of protected systems, such as the SDMI initiative, is highlighted by the theory.
• Potential use of the Digital Object Identifier system and, in turn, its use of persistent identifiers.
• Defines the minimum ‘copyright’ for a digital product.
• Once products are registered in the DIPR environment they are always available to licensed users and they become virtual products.

General overview:

Distributed Intellectual Property Rights (DIPR) is a system for identifying copyrights of intellectual properties in today’s electronic environments where intangible digital products can be copied and distributed at high speed with no perceptible loss of quality. The system will encompass all intellectual property that can be represented in a digital form such as music, text, video, and software.

The premise of Distributed Property Rights theory is that intellectual property can so easily move from one physical object or system to another that it is difficult, if not impossible, to contain it within a limited physical environment. This theory describes how a system of ‘rights offices’ on the Internet creates a digital environment where creators and users can trade intellectual property. The theory also highlights some of the limitations of current attempts to impose copyrights by restricting copying and some of the business methods that should be adopted in the future.

The DIPR model uses evolutionary theory of replicating units to show why both suppliers and consumers have to be represented and protected and why each manifestation of an intellectual product has to contain a record of the transaction between the two parties. This record is in the form of a persistent Property Rights Descriptor field attached to the intellectual content. In the future, the emphasis in copyright law should based on the protection of this unique identifying record and its liaison with the identified property and not on the physical medium of distribution or the number of copies made.