The International DOI Foundation (IDF) has announced the appointment of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) as a DOI Registration Agency in Australia. "We believe DOI will be an essential tool in driving the growth of Australia's digital content industry," commented Michael Fraser, Chief Executive Officer of CAL. "DOI will offer unparalleled opportunities to anyone interested in accessing digital content". Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) is an Australian copyright management company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users of copyright material. CAL represents authors, journalists, visual artists, photographers and newspaper, magazine and book publishers as their non-exclusive agent to license the copying of works to the general community. See the full press release.

CAL joins a widening list of DOI Agencies demonstrating the practical value of DOI applications internationally. DOIs are now widely used in applications in scientific and professional publishing through the CrossRef activity now used by 113 leading publishers and 47 affiliates. Learning Objects Network is using DOIs in the Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative in which since November 2001 there have been sales of $13.5 million worth of content by traditional and non-traditional publishers as pilots have rolled over into full implementation. Content Directions Inc. has announced a series of DOI assignment arrangements, including with McGraw-Hill Education and with Stevens Institute of Technology. In Korea, Enpia Systems and the Ministry of Information and Communications announced on 6 May that DOI would be the preferred digital content identifier for the protection of copyright and that Korea's National Computerization Agency would provide equipment for DOI services. In Japan, IDF's collaboration with the Content ID Forum announced last year is continuing and strengthening.

The International DOI Foundation is developing a prototype of advanced DOI functionality which will be completed by July 2002. This shows the combined power of the DOI's features, multiple resolution and Application Profiles used to inform client software of available services for a given DOI. At least some of those clients will be specific to Adobe products and will leverage the use of Adobe's embedded metadata technology, XMP. The prototype is being built with the collaboration of Adobe (a Member of IDF) but shows general concepts applicable to other platforms. The full prototype will be demonstrated at the IDF Members meeting being held at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA on July 18th. A detailed explanation is provided in a slide presentation.

DOI Application Profiles are well-structured, interoperating, descriptions based on a data dictionary resulting from work of the <indecs> initiative, through which the International DOI Foundation (IDF) is continuing to support the development of a rights data dictionary within the MPEG-21 multimedia framework as part of a consortium with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Enpia Systems, and Melodies and Memories Global (a subsidiary of Dentsu). A White Paper describing the project has been released and forms the basis of a recent IDF summary.

The work of the International DOI Foundation is entirely funded by our members, who also benefit from use of the materials resulting from our work. We support open standards infrastructure work such as the Handle System and <indecs> Data Dictionary now formally adopted by ISO MPEG, building a practical system for digital trading on behalf of the entire content community.

To participate in development of prototypes, and support adoption of this fundamental enabling technology, please contact the Director of the Foundation (n.paskin@doi.org).