Information Today
Volume 17, Number 6 • June 2000
Copyright Clearance Center Unveils Digital-Rights-Management Services, Signs Dow Jones as First Customer

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), Inc., the licensing agent for text-reproduction rights, has announced an end-to-end licensing and reprint solution that enables publishers and other content providers to offer their copyrighted material online, delivering instant permissions and the content itself directly to customers. This new offering makes the online permissions process easy for end-users, allowing them to quickly and legally use content from the Web.

The company also announced that Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of business and financial news and information, has selected CCC as the exclusive provider of digital-rights-management services for its online editions of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Readers will get instant permission to use content from these publications simply by clicking on a permissions link located at the point of content on the publisher’s Web site.

“After beta-testing different digital-rights-management services, we chose CCC because of its 20-year track record in the complex business of managing rights and distributing royalties to rights holders. CCC possesses both the technology and the rights-management savvy to do the job correctly,” said Joe Acevedo of Dow Jones & Co.

CCC’s new solution lets publishers and other content owners determine the types of reuse they wish to license. They decide whether to license use of their materials in electronic media such as e-mail, the Internet, intranets, or CD-ROMs; or in print media such as photocopies and reprints. Copyright holders can also specify distinct rights, terms, and conditions for different pieces of content.

For end-users, CCC’s digital-rights-management solution delivers the content electronically to the desktop, or fulfills reprint requests automatically by routing them for printing and delivery to the user. Individuals and organizations can pay for their orders online by credit card, or they can request an invoice. (Previously, CCC did not provide reprints, subscriptions, back issues, or document delivery. Users had to contact the publisher or rights holder directly.)

Dow Jones customers will also be able to order electronic reprints for their corporate Web sites via the Dow Jones WebReprint Service, an online service from Dow Jones that licenses reprints of content for Internet sites and opt-in e-mail campaigns.

“The digital publishing market is expected to grow from approximately $8 billion today to up to $70 billion by 2004. CCC is pleased to offer a sophisticated e-commerce solution that helps rights holders increase revenue opportunities and enhance service to their customers while maintaining control of their copyrighted material,” said Joseph S. Alen, president and CEO of CCC. “Rights holders can either choose a complete solution or select CCC’s digital-rights-management services, such as licensing, a la carte.”

According to the company, CCC is the world’s largest licensing agent for text-reproduction rights and the provider of many licensing services for reproducing copyrighted materials in print and electronic formats. The company was formed in 1978 to facilitate compliance with U.S. copyright law. CCC currently manages rights relating to over 1.75 million works and represents more than 9,600 publishers and hundreds of thousands of authors and other creators, directly or through their representatives. CCC-licensed customers in the U.S. number over 10,000 corporations and subsidiaries (including 92 of the Fortune 100 companies), as well as thousands of government agencies, law firms, document suppliers, libraries, academic institutions, copy shops, and bookstores. CCC is a member of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) and has bilateral agreements with Reproduction Rights Organizations in 11 countries worldwide, under which it repatriates fees for overseas use of U.S. works.

Source: Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., Danvers, MA, 978/750-8400; http://www.copyright.com.


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