"Publishers today face a seldom-discussed digital dilemma that directly impacts their profitability: the lack of standards for communicating rights information about content. What rights are available? What rights have I sold? What am I owed for my licensed content? Am I collecting it all?

The industry has long relied on human hands to manage rights. However, with the increasing digitization of books and book products, we see new possibilities for profiting from your content, and system-to-system communications of transactions will lead directly to new revenue streams and decreased costs.

This issue came to the fore in June 2009 after the proposed Google book settlement that called for the creation of a Book Rights Registry. It became clear that in the brave new world of digitized books and content, the lack of digital standards for transmitting rights agreements leads directly to lost opportunities. The ad hoc system of human data entry and non-standard terminology means that even when rights are sold, publishers do not always collect the fees due to them and are not always in compliance. The result has been a mess of missed opportunities as the demand for quality content increases..."

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