Formation of digital rights group LCC

Executives from a wide representation of the content sector, including EMI Music Publishing, Pearson, RTL's Freemantle Media and Microsoft, contributed to the debate that will inform the technical work.

Core to its work is a rights reference model that will allow end users to overcome the hurdle of multiple standards and licences currently required to access and use different online content and allow creators, from the individual to the largest media company, to make their work available, knowing their copyright information is machine-readable and transferable across different platforms.

Making life simpler for e-tailing

For example, the LCC will enable a start-up business to aggregate content without hours of separate negotiations with the different licensing and standards organisations and encourage new creators to put works online legally, making life simpler for e-retailers dealing with different content.

Major efforts are now being made to extend the membership of the project to encourage participation across all content-related sectors including e-tailing.

Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council, the organisation that initiated the LCC project, said, "This is an exciting and forward-looking project. It's about providing technical solutions that make copyright work for creators and end users and enable business models that may yet be unimagined. It is an example of the creative sector taking responsibility for a sustainable future."

For more, go to www.linkedcontentcoalition.org.