Getting the Ball Rolling: Formats for Licensing and Attribution

By Rob Linton on August 28, 2008

So even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, right?  I think I heard that somewhere before…

With that in mind here’s some preliminary thinking on a licensing and attribution format.

The primary goals here are:

  1. Enable “scoping” so particular pieces of media can be tagged independently of one another.
  2. Specify the media as a copy, derivative work or modified work.
  3. Use existing microformats where possible.
  4. KISS - Life is complicated enough.

This is a collaborative process, and our thinking will likely change as we go through the process, so please treat this all as pre-beta conversation-fodder.

Without further ado, here’s a first draft:

<!– Scope.
Certain tags will scope the relevant tags to everything within it. Allows us to create license blocks that apply to only a portion of a page rather than all-or-nothing. We need to decide how to determine which tags will define a block.
–>
<div class=”[container class]“>

<!– Content.
This can be anything, including nested scope blocks. The most specific block will determine how media is licensed, attributed, etc.
–>
<span>
<img src=”http://example.com/some_media.jpg” />
</span>

<!– Creator.
Use hCard? http://microformats.org/wiki/hCard
–>
<span class=”creator vcard”>
<a class=”url fn” href=”http://example.com/”>Joe Example</a>
</span>

<!– License.
Like http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-license but bound by the scope.
–>
<a rel=”license” href=”[link to license]“>[license description]</a>

<!– Copied source. - media source
Where (URL-wise) this media came from. Links to the relevant URL. Multiple copied-source tags may be specified (or “stacked” - http://playtheweb.org/2008/08/26/the-long-trail/) to show a longer trial.
–>
<a rel=”copied-source” href=”[link to original page]” target=”_blank” />

<!– Original Source. - media source
Where (URL-wise) this media *ulitmately* came from. Links to the relevant URL. There will likely need to be some kind of dispute resolution process around this.
–>
<a rel=”source” href=”[link to original page]” target=”_blank” />

<!– Derivative source. - media source
Marks the media as a derivative work and links to the original work(s). A media item may have many derivative sources.
–>
<a rel=”derivative-source” href=”[link to original media]” />

<!– Modified source. - media source
Marks the media as a modified work (media that is changed but not necessarily changed enough to qualify as a derivative work) and links to the original work.
—>
<a rel=”modified-source” href=”[link to original media]” />

</div>

Many of those tags I’ve described as a “media source” and we need to account for sources referencing things other than URLs.  Here’s some - also very preliminary - thinking on what could comprise a media source.

If it’s an URL use a A tag with a relevant media source type in the rel attribute(origin, attribution, etc.)

<a rel=”source” href=”http://example.com”>[text]</a>

If it’s a person or a company, use hCard and overload the class with the media source type.

<span class=”source hcard”>
<a class=”url fn” href=”http://example.com/”>Joe Example</a>
</span>

If it’s a publication use citation?  http://microformats.org/wiki/citation Overload as with hCard.

<span class=”source citation”>
<span class=”periodical”>
<span class=”author firstauthor”>
<span class=”family-name”>Roth</span>,
<span class=”given-name”>Mathew</span>
</span>
(<span class=”year”>2008</span>):
„<span class=”article”>Using semantic HTML in scientific work</span>.“
P. <span class=”part”>1</span>; P. <span class=”part”>2</span>.
In:
<span class=”title”>The Computational Linguist</span>.
<span class=”subseries”>Development of the Semantic Web</span>.
<span class=”volume”>2</span>
(<span class=”ctime”>2008</span>)
No. <span class=”number”>16</span>,
Pp. <span class=”pagerange”>124–131</span>
(Access: <span class=”atime”><abbr title=”20080714T1612+0200″>14.07.2008 16:12 CEST</abbr></span>)
<span class=”url”>http://www.example.com/web/address/1234.pdf</span>
</span>
</span>

I haven’t addressed videos, film, radio and doubtlessly a whole host of others.

So the floor is open and we’re keen to hear your ideas.  Does this meet your needs for licensing and attribution on the Internet?  What’s missing?  Which parts are working and which parts are broken?

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