The Digital Media Project  

Source

Value-chain Breakout

Date:

2004/04/30

Title

Roles of today’s media value-chain players

No.

0074/Los Angeles

 

Purpose of this document is to identify today’s value-chain players, their functions and the relationships with other value-chain players.

This document represents work in progress


Author/Creator

Collective Management Society

Publisher

Producer

Performer

Syndicator

Marketer

Repository

Aggregator

Distributor

Retailer

Monitoring service provider

Connectivity provider

Network service provider

End-user Device Manufacturer

Software Platform Provider

Chip manufacturer

Application Platform Provider

Security Provider

Technology licensing provider

Conformance certification providers

Metadata, mediation and resolution service providers

Clearing House

Certificate Authority

Financial Service Provider

Public Authority

End-User

Reseller


 

Authoring device manufacturer

Activity: an organization that assembles hardware and software that allows an author to create content and make it available to authros and creators.

 

Actors that connect with Authoring device manufacturer in the content value chain:

Author/Creator

Activity: right holder of the underlying ‘works’ that are used in the production of ‘products’ made up of digital manifestations of works.

 

Actors that connect with Authors/Creators in the content value chain:

·        Authors/Creators: Co-creation, variation and adaptation of existing works.

·        Publishers: Share in author rights revenue, publish works on behalf of the authors.

·        Collective Management Societies: Register works under Author(s) alone or in conjunction with Publishers, provide work information and Author information and work use terms and conditions.

·        Authoring Device Manufacturers: Authors create using digital resources that are adapted and/or using digital authoring devices.

·        Software Platform Providers: Application software.

·        Security Providers: Secure links between all above agents in online transactions.

 

Collective Management Society

Activity: an organization that provides collective representation to their constituents such as authors/creators or performers.  In the case of author societies they provide representation via reciprocal agreements across most territories in the world.  They are involved in standardizing:

§         Certified metadata for work identification

§         Standard licenses for the different concepts under which the works are exploited (first fixation, mechanical reproduction, public communication).

§         Maintaining work use statistics.

§         Distribute rights revenue to authors.

§         Metadata resolution services.

 

Actors that connect with Collective Management Societies in the content value chain:

·        Authors/Creators: Transform Author and work information into standard authoritative metadata, express personal terms and conditions into standard legal formats for both national and international licensing, distribute rights revenues to Authors.

·        Collective Management Societies: Harmonize licensing across territories, maintain reciprocal agreements, exchange work and Author metadata, reciprocal reporting of work use statistics.

·        Producers: License first fixation and reproduction.

·        Publishers: Express license terms and conditions into standard legal formats for both national and international licensing. Obtain sub-publisher information and link work exploitation appropriately as per contracts.

·        Repositories, Distributors/Aggregators, Retailers, Resellers: Emit licenses for reproduction and making available to the public i.e. broadcasting, downloading/streaming.

·        Monitoring service providers: Obtain public work use statistics throughout distribution.

·        Clearing Houses: Multiple work use clearing/ license, work ID and production ID.

·        Application Platform Providers: Specialized vertical applications for enterprise management systems.

·        Security Providers: Secure links between all above agents in online transactions, Watermarking, fingerprinting etc.

 

Publisher

Activity: an organization that makes works public and share in the author rights, they can be seen as  brokers of that portion of the author and performing  rights that are subject to commerce. Traditionally they have been middlemen between authors and performers and producers. They also transfer their rights to sub-publishers in different territories.

 

Actors that connect with Publishers in the content value chain:

·        Authors

·        Collective Management Societies: Co-register works with Authors, provide work information, publisher and author information  (in case of registering on behalf of author), work use terms and conditions and publisher agreements.

·        Producers: Production contracts.

·        Performers: Performing contracts.

·        Publishers: Co-publishing and sub-publishing agreements

 

Producer

Activity: an organization that may license works from societies and produce ‘products’. The products may have their own names and identifications.

 

(performing rights)

 

Data exchanged: Work and  product metadata, work ID, product  ID plus other identification (watermark, fingerprint), author and performer data, license terms and conditions.

 

Actors that connect with Producers in the content value chain:

 

§         Collective Management Societies: Obtain license terms and conditions for first fixation, work ID, product ID (Watermark, fingerprint)

§         Producers: Co-production contract and production licenses terms and conditions

§         Performers: Obtain license terms and conditions for performing rights

§         Repositories/Distributors/Aggregators: Products from producers commercial contract agreements

§         Monitoring service providers: Monitor product use throughout distribution chain.

§         Clearing Houses: Multiple work use clearing/ distribution terms and conditions production ID.

§         Application Platform Providers: Specialized vertical applications

§         Security Providers: Secure links between all above agents in online transactions, Watermarking, fingerprinting etc.

 

Performer

Activity: realize the works of authors within productions.

 

Actors that connect with Performers in the content value chain:

·        Collective Management Societies (performers): Performance information and production license terms and conditions.

·        Producers: Performance first fixation and reproduction license terms and conditions.

·        Publishers: Performing contracts

·        Syndicators: Artist Guilds, management contracts etc.

 

Syndicator

Activity: an organization that manages and provides content to retailers using a variety of  purchase options

 

Actors that connect with Syndicator in the content value chain:

Marketer

Activity: an organization that provides promotional, sales enhancement, brand enhancement services and merchandising. The effectiveness of its efforts could be monitored and could involve bundled promotional efforts for many players on the value chain, normally emphasising some appealing access to DM created by the author. The nature of its compensation structure could also be highly variable, both between different types of marketers and also for a single individual who might participate in an offer to employ or quasi-employ their marketing services, for example an autumn marketer whose commissions fall off as winter and Christmas approaches, or also an End-User who accepts a Marketer's promotional offer and then in turn plays a compensated role as a Marketer themselves (becoming an End-User/Marketer) with a sliding commission (or other compensation structure/formula) based on their own monitored performance of services.

 

Actors that connect with Marketers in the content value chain:

§ Authors/Creators

§ Producers

§ Performers

§ Publishers

§ Syndicators

§ Distributors/Aggregators

§ Retailers

§ Monitoring service providers [note distinct manner of connection; supervisory]

§ Connectivity providers

§ Network service provider

§ End-user Device Manufacturers

§ Software Platform Providers

§ Application Platform Providers

§ Financial Service Providers

§ End-Users

Repository

Activity: a set of technologies (database) to name, describe, locate, access, manage, and secure information about the data and resources

 

Actors that connect with Repository in the content value chain:

Aggregator

Activity: an organization serving retailers, e.g. procuring, packaging, presenting, cataloguing, archiving, indexing, promoting

 

Actors that connect with aggregators in the content value chain:

§         Collective Management Societies

§         Producers

§         Security providers

§         Metadata, mediation and resolution service providers

§         Monitoring service providers

§         Distributors

§         Retailers

§         Public Authorities

Distributor

Activity:

 

Actors that connect with distributors in the content value chain:

Retailer

Activity: an organization that transacts (for some form of consideration) content

 

Actors that connect with retailer in the content value chain:

 

Monitoring service provider

Activity: an organization that provides a mechanism for tracing the content throughout the value chain and monitoring services based on the tracing data. It may determine the legal status of usage, allows rights holders to support their claims to royalties, and provides statistics related to content usage, end-users behaviour and so on.

 

Actors that connect with Authors/Creators in the content value chain:             

§         Authors/Creators: sales record, illegal distribution

§         Producers: sales record, illegal distribution

§         Performers: sales record, illegal distribution

§         Publishers: sales record, illegal distribution

§         Syndicators: sales record

§         Marketers: sales record, user behaviour

§         Distributors/Aggregators: sales record

§         Retailers: sales record

§         Security Providers: use verification

§         Clearing Houses

§         Certification Authorities

§         Financial Service Providers

§         Governments: tax

§         End-Users: generates usage information

Connectivity provider

Activity: an organization that provides point-to-point connectivity between providers and consumers. Connectivity may or may not be physical (physically plugged in). Examples of companies that provide this kind of service are telcos, cable companies, mobile / fixed network operators, satellite operators.

 

Actors that connect with connectivity provider in the content value chain:

·        Network service providors: including broadcast television and radio services. ISP’s, providing services such as streaming, file transfer.

·        End user devices:

·        Connectivity providers: interoperability between connectivity between providers.

 

(Wireless LANs?)

Network service provider

Activity: an organization that, att the lowest level, provides IP connectivity and be an ISP. Typically provides compelling end-to-end network based services based on the connectivity, e.g. guarantee of quality of service.  Services attractive to the end user in providing some form of entertainment, leisure or business services. For example: the delivery of content, direct end-to-end services such as telephony/messaging/video, and other media based services.

 

Actors that connect with network service provider in the content value chain:

·        Connectivity providers.

·        Distributors/Aggregators: Portals to deliver content

·        Software platform providers: Middleware

·        End users: through application services

·        Possibly everything else….

 

End-user Device Manufacturer

Activity: an organization manufacturing end-user devices assembling hardware and software that allows the end user to select content according to preferences, obtain it from connectivity/network service providers, and process/present it according to usage rules agreed to by right holders.

 

Actors that connect with end-user device manufacturer in the content value chain:

§         Network service provider; receiving the contents and usage rules from them and, if necessary, reporting the using status to them

§         End-Users; ensuring the rendering and storing the contents with following the enforcement rules agreed with network service providers and right holders

§         Software Platform Providers,

§         Security Providers,

§         Providers of Technology Licensing,

§         Providers of conformance certification;

§         Paying use fees/licence fees if needed.

Software Platform Provider

Activity: an organization that provide the software of devices. Typical components of a software platform include:

§         Graphical user interface

§         Middleware

§         Device drivers

§         Operating system

§         Bootloader

 

Actors that connect with software platform provider in the content value chain:

§         End-User device manufactors (include the software platform in their products)

§         Security providers (include the security solution in the software)

§         End-Users (pay for software platform if separate of device, e.g. Linux distribution)

§         Other software providers

Chip manufacturer

Activity:

 

Actors that connect with chip manufacturer in the content value chain:

 

Application Platform Provider

Activity: an organization that provides the applications that constitute a service. Typical components of an application platform include:

§         a user interface

§         software services (e.g. information, communication, transaction)

 

Actors that connect with application software provider in the content value chain::

§         Software platform providers (agree on common APIs)

§         Publishers (pay for application provision)

§         Distributors (pay for application provision)

§         Marketers (pay for application provision)

§         Retailers (pay for application provision)

Security Provider

Activity: an organization that provides technologies and services related to the security technologies such as DRM/IPMP, and all levels of relevant computer and network security solutions

 

Actors that connect with security provider in the content value chain:

§         Authors/creators

§         CMS

§         Producers

§         Publishers: To protect rights of right holders

§         End-user Device Manufacturers: Porting of DRM/IPMP solutions to support right holders

§         Software Platform Providers: Software platform for content protection and management

§         Repositories: computer and network security solutions to defend valuable contents and availability to end-users and publishers

§         Connectivity providers: Network security solutions

§         Network service providers: Network security solutions

Technology licensing provider

Activity: an organization that requires all device manufacturers implementing a particular technology to sign a legal agreement where the manufacturer agrees to comply with a list of device design criteria (e.g., robustness rules) and/or with a list of specific standards and interfaces.  This technology may be covered by a patent pool to which a manufacturer is given rights after signing such an agreement.  In the context of DMP, the technology refers to a Digital Rights Management system.  A device may be an end-user device as well as an infrastructure device or a server that has to implement a component of Digital Rights Management.

 

Actors that connect with providers of technology licensing in the content value chain:

·        End-user Device Manufacturers

·        Software Platform Providers

·        Application Platform Providers

·        Security Providers

 

Conformance certification providers

Activity: an organization that provides conformance, robustness and encoding rules along with certification of satisfying same. These entities provide the core trust management functionalities for given markets or business relationships.

 

Actors that connect with conformance certification providers in the content value chain:

·        Authors/Creators

·        Collective Management Societies

·        Publishers

·        Syndicators

·        Repositories

·        Distributors/Aggregators

·        Retailers

·        Connectivity providers

·        End-user Device Manufacturers

·        Software Platform Providers

·        Application Platform Providers

·        Security Providers

·        Providers of metadata, mediation and resolution services

·        Clearing Houses

·        Resellers

 

In addition, providers of conformance certification may use, or provide themselves:

·        Certification Authorities

 

Metadata, mediation and resolution service providers

Activity: An organization that recognizes, assigns, delivers and processes structured metadata, including description, actor information, commercial information, identifiers and permission information associated with content.
The management of such metadata facilitates content identification, search, retrieval, and access processes, thereby supporting functions including rights clearance, usage reporting, and revenue attribution.
The role also enables permission/usage rule expression and enforcement for given sets of content and/or can be used to assign such permissions to other actors associated with such content.
Such providers may serve a mediation and/or resolution functionality to map disparate sets of metadata to support advanced business models, and provide value added services to the end user such as “click to buy”.
Such providers may also serve as mediator/agents to broker “closed” information such as actor identity, as required by certain business models. An EPG provider is another example of a Provider of metadata, mediation and resolution services.

 

Actors that connect with metadata, mediation and resolution services providers in the content value chain:

Clearing House

Activity: an organisation that collects payment from a user to distribute to right holders for the purchase of usage-rights over a given instance of a digital content.

 

Actors that connect with clearing houses in the content value chain:

§         End-users: Pay to the clearing houses and get rights to purchase or use the content.

§         Collective management societies: Collect money from the clearing houses and hold licenses pertaining to the contents.

§         Certification authorities: Certificates for secure transactions between clearing houses and end-users or between clearing houses and Distributors/Aggregators

§         Syndicators

Certificate Authority

Activity: an organization that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private key pairs. The role of the Certificate authorities (CA) is to guarantee that the two parties involved in the transaction and exchanging information are really who they claim to be

 

Actors that connect with certificate authority in the content value chain:

§         Clearing houses: Asks to issue certificates to end-users, devices, Distributors/Aggregators and Retailers

§         Syndicators

§         End-users

§         Distributors/Aggregators

Financial Service Provider

Activity: an organization that

§         provides the infrastructure for financial transactions

§         accepts deposits and channel the money into lending activities.

 

Actors that connect with financial service providers in the content value chain:

§         Retailers (use infrastructure for financial transactions for their activities)

§         Distributors (use infrastructure for financial transactions for their activities)

§         Producers (loan money to finance production)

§         End-users

Public Authority

Activity: an organization that provides the public interest controls relating to the use of content and establish reciprocal agreements with respect to parallel issues from trade and industry to legal rights (Berne).  They also are involved with regard to providing local jurisdiction and taxation (e.g. VAT) on content sales.

 

Actors that connect with Public Authority in the content value chain:

·        Collective Management Societies: Regulate the operation of all collective representation organization,  provide legislation and determine levels of revenue from such things such as levies

·        Producers: Local territorial contact law

·        Performers: Performing contracts law.

·        Re-tailers: Collect VAT on sale of content to end-users

·        End-users: protect end user rights

End-User

Activity: use content in order to

§         Acquire knowledge and understanding

§         Express themselves

§         Experience new things

§         Communicate

§         Be entertained

End-Users use the content value chain (including devices, services and networks) to use content.

Examples for content value chain usage include:

§         Using digital media services (e.g. public television)

§         Acquiring and storing digital media (e.g. CDs, DVDs)

§         Communicating with other users

 

Actors that connect with end-users in the content value chain:

§         Connectivity provider

o       User authentication

o       Device authentication

§         Network service providers (are paid for providing the network connection)

§         End-User device/software platform/application platform/security technology providers (e.g. software updates)

§         Conformance certification providers

o       User registration

o       User authentication

o       Device registration

o       Device authentication

§         Distributors/Aggregators/Retailers/Repositories/Providers of metadata, mediation and resolution services (are paid for delivering content)

o       User registration

o       Device registration

o       User authentication

o       Device authentication

o       Searching for content

o       Selecting content

o       “Purchasing” content

o       Downloading/streaming content, associated rights and DRM tools into the device

§         Financial service providers

o       User registration

o       User authentication

o       Payment clearance

§         End-Users (receive and deliver communication)

§         Usage monitoring

§         Reseller

o       Moving content out of the device

§         Author/Performer (e.g. in case of a real-time conversation)

Reseller

Activity: owners who possess the right, acquired by sale or other transfer, to control the disposition and transfer of DM such that they may act as a reliable conduit for used DM goods, buying from End-Users and selling to different End-Users as a regular business.

 

Actors that connect with Resellers in the content value chain:

§         End-Users

§         Retailer

§         (other End-Users)