ISO 19153:2014 is a reference model for digital rights management (DRM) functionality for geospatial resources (GeoDRM). As such, it is connected to the general DRM market in that geospatial resources shall be treated as nearly as possible like other resources, such as music, text, or services. It is not the intention to reinvent a market nor the technology that already exists and is thriving, but to make sure that a larger market has access to geospatial resources through a mechanism that it understands and that is similar to and consistent with the ones already in use.
ISO 19153:2014 does not replace any previous standards, but it is dependent upon them. Each resource and service standard that exists or will exist becomes a resource description in ISO 19153:2014, and hopefully will be subject to the same protection that is afforded to other resources.
This International Standard defines:
- A conceptual model for digital rights management of geospatial resources, providing a framework and reference for more detailed specification in this area.
- A metadata model for the expression of rights that associate users to the acts that they can perform against a particular geospatial resource, and associated information used in the enforcement and granting of those rights, such as owner metadata, available rights, and issuer of those rights.
- Requirements that are placed on rights management systems for the enforcement of those rights. A rights management system shall be necessary and sufficient: it shall implement only those restrictions necessary to enforce the rights defined therein, and it shall be sufficient to enforce those rights.
- How this is to work conceptually in the larger DRM context to ensure the ubiquity of geospatial resources in the general services market.
A resource in this context is a data file, or service for geographic information or process.
This abstract descriptive standard builds on and complements the existing standards, and defines at an abstract level a rights model to enable the digital rights management of standards-based geospatial resources. Future GeoDRM standards will be written to implement the concepts defined in ISO 19153:2014.