ACAP backers buoyed by UK Gov't 'support'

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 27 February 2008 02:43

Your IT - Home IT

"A group of international IP experts drawn from newspapers, magazines and content aggregators has been developing a new standard which can be adapted to differing end-uses of content. UK companies played a major part in this work, which has been led by Mark Bide of Rightscom Ltd since 2006. Following a £500,000 pilot to test the concept, a new Automated Content Access Protocol was launched in New York in November for extended commercial use. Its scope will be extended beyond text in the future to include still images, sound and movies."

Nonetheless, Bide said: "We are of course absolutely delighted with the UK Government's support and ACAP is now cited directly in two policy documents: this one and the European Commission's Communication on online creative content. ACAP is well on the way to being adopted as a universal open standard which will benefit everyone with an interest in digital content: large corporations, small corporations or indeed individuals. ACAP is all about maximising the potential of the Internet for making more and more high-quality content accessible and for giving all content providers the motivation and confidence to create and disseminate."

In the first instance, ACAP has been designed to provide a framework that will allow any publisher to express access and use policies in a language that search engines' robot 'spiders' can be taught to understand. However, ACAP's scope is being extended to other business relationships and other media types including music and audiovisual content. ACAP is the initiative of the European Publishers Council (EPC); the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the International Publishers Association (IPA).

According to Wikipedia, 'The project has generated considerable online debate, in the search, content and intellectual property communities. If there is one linking theme to the commentary, it is that keeping the specification simple will be critical to its successful implementation, and that the aims of the project are focussed on the needs of publishers, rather than readers. Many have seen this as a flaw."