Copyright conflicts resolution: A method based on legal ontologies in an architecture enabling subsidiarity

Abstract

Legal and technical regulations both serve to allow a wide dissemination of creative works through networks. Technological measures and rights management information implement copyright 'contracts' and are based on Rights Expression Languages, i.e. ontologies that link copyright concepts and terms to events occurring in digital networks. While implementing such devices, specific attention shall be dedicated to the compatibility between different stakeholders' expectations. In order for Digital Rights Management systems to be fair, they must adequately support opposing interests; notwithstanding and in all cases the law requires that copyright exceptions granted by national legislations be respected. After a description of the legal framework and current technical standardization initiatives, we will detail a method for obtaining ontologies from syntactical parsing of copyright law legal texts. This ontology will be supported by a client-server architecture capable of resolving conflicting rights expressions including the use of the principle of subsidiarity. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.