Notes of the ISO TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 meeting September 23-24, 2002 Geneva. 2. Update on arrangements for the ISAN Registration Authority

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1 ISO/TC 46/SC 9 Working Group 1 ISO Project 15706: International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN) and ISO Project 20925: Version identifier for audiovisual works (V-ISAN) Web page: Notes of the ISO TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 meeting September 23-24, 2002 Geneva ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 201 Participants: André Chaubeau (Convenor); Ken Carter; Carol Cooper; Mike Dolan; Craig Finseth; Elizabeth Giuliani; Richard Hopper; Chris Marcich (day 1 only); Bill Miller; Gerti Müller-Ernstberger; Jean-Marie Nokin; Idzard van der Puyl (day 2 only); Lawrence Safir; Jan van Sandwijk; Jane Saunders; Frances Seghers (day 1 only); Stephen Stohn; Jane Thacker (recorder); Merrill Weiss (day 1 only). 1. Outcome of the final vote on the ISAN standard FDIS was approved by 100% of the ISO members who voted. Publication of International Standard ISO will take approximately two months, although ISO may want to wait until the contract for the Registration Authority is signed before publishing the ISAN standard. 2. Update on arrangements for the ISAN Registration Authority The International Agency for the ISAN will be legally incorporated and registered with the Swiss authorities on October 2, The Agency will be incorporated as an association under Swiss law instead of being a foundation as originally planned. Association status is easier to establish and provides more flexibility. The International Agency will be administered as described in earlier documents. An Executive Committee composed of 3 members elected from the Governing Board will oversee the work of the Managing Director of the International Agency. The three shareholders (AGICOA, FIAPF, CISAC) have hired a consultant to carry out preparations for establishing the International Agency. The business plan has been revised with adjusted tariffs and figures, while still respecting the framework that was agreed in earlier discussions. The Registration Authority contract with ISO will be finalized as soon as the International Agency is formally established. Communication and promotion activities will be limited until the ISAN system is ready to start registering audiovisual works, probably in January In addition to plans for ISAN agencies in Canada, France and the Netherlands, requests have been received about agency status from organizations in Sweden and Australia. The ISAN system expects to begin with five registration agencies. It will expand as soon as possible by adding a registration agency for the U.S. market. ISO International Organization for Standardization ISO Organisation internationale de normalisation TC 46 Information and Documentation TC 46 Information et documentation SC 9 Identification and Description SC 9 Identification et description WG 1 ISAN and V-ISAN WG 1 ISAN et V-ISAN

2 3. V-ISAN Part 1: Syntax and structure of the identifier ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 201 page 2 Relevant documents: WG 1 N 194 (SMPTE Working Draft ); SC 9 N 336 (ISO Working Draft ); WG 1 N 192 (ISO procedures for PAS). Document N 194 is a revision of the V-ISAN Working Draft for SMPTE's R30 "Registration and Identification Technology" committee. It was balloted within R30's membership. There were 4 positive votes with comments, 2 abstentions and 0 negative votes. All of the comments relate to the scope issue (see next agenda item). Participants reviewed document N 194. The following changes were agreed: 1. Clause 4.4 will be revised for clarity. 2. The addition of "identifier" will be removed following the acronym ISAN. 3. Most references to the ISAN standard should be changed to undated references. 4. The sentence that was removed from clause 5.4 (prohibiting the overwriting or replacement of a V-ISAN) will remain deleted. However, the future Part 2 will make it clear that once a V-ISAN is affixed it must not be removed from that version. 5. A change in recording medium (e.g. PAL to NTSC format) would be eligible for a new V- ISAN. The examples in Annex B will be revised. Jane Thacker will revise N 194 to reflect these changes, as well as those agreed during the scope discussion (see next agenda item). The length and structure of the V-ISAN identifier should be made public as soon as possible so that appropriate space for a V-ISAN is reserved within other standards and system applications that are currently in development. Issuing Part 1 as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) is the fastest ISO process for announcing the structure of the number. A PAS is an interim specification and would not be appropriate if there were multiple options under consideration. André Chaubeau reported that he had just received a phone call from Jean-Pierre Evain to say that the European Broadcasting Union would not support issuing V-ISAN Part 1 as a PAS because they are not prepared to take a position on the V-ISAN project at this point in time. DECISION: The revised draft of Part 1 will be distributed for review and comment via the VISAN-L reflector. The agreed text will then go forward to ISO TC46/SC9 for approval as a PAS. A PAS proposal can be submitted by any ISO member body or liaison organization (e.g. SMPTE). Jane Thacker will check whether the SC9 Secretariat can also propose the PAS on behalf of the Working Group.

3 4. Additional requirements and scope for ISAN / V-ISAN ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 201 page 3 Relevant documents: WG 1 N 193 (ATSC letter re: scope); WG1 N 198 (Background on the scope issue). Merrill Weiss stated that acceptance of the V-ISAN by SMPTE and the ATSC is dependant on resolution of the scope issue. If the scope problem is not resolved to their satisfaction, they will have to return to their separate identifier project of three years ago. The scope issue will have no impact on the structure of the V-ISAN identifier. Bill Miller reported that SMPTE studied the capacity issues and found no problems with the current number structure if the scope is extended. Craig Finseth explained that broadcasters need a single identifier system to handle everything they transmit, including works that are audio only, data only, or audio-data only. Digital broadcasting systems deal with data streams and have no concept of whether they are handling visual, audio, or data content within those data streams and their program release functions. For example, satellite broadcasters release 500 channels of services, most of which are video but 100 of which might be audio-only services such as music, news, etc. These services would have no visual elements but need to be handled by the same automated systems. Broadcasters want anything that goes through a broadcast system as a complete work to be eligible for ISAN and V-ISAN. Several members of the WG expressed concerns about the breadth of the proposed expansion. Frances Seghers pointed out that the scope of ISAN can not be expanded into areas involving music works and recordings without the participation and agreement of the music industry. The WG does not have appropriate representation and/or competence at present to expand beyond audiovisual works. There were also questions about how to define the limits of what would be eligible if the scope of ISAN was expanded to cover everything that is capable of being broadcast. Jane Thacker corrected a statement by the ATSC in document N 193 about the meaning of the ISRC standard. A new ISRC is not assigned when the ownership of a recording changes. Only changes to the content of the recording require a new ISRC. [See the ISRC Web site at: Regarding the "problem cases" that were cited in document N 198 as reasons for expanding the scope of ISAN, it was noted that examples 1 and 2 were examples of user selections, not of separate works. Regarding the 5 th example, a Web site would not be eligible for an ISAN. An ISAN may be assigned to an audiovisual work that is accessible on a Web site, but not to the Web site itself. Stephen Stohn suggested that it might be possible to accommodate content that is closely related to an audiovisual work within the ISAN and V-ISAN systems but it would not be desirable to stretch the scope of these systems to cover everything for which there is no existing identifier. There was general agreement among members that the scope of ISAN should not be changed. Some flexibility could be introduced into the scope of the V-ISAN by having it include audio and data entities that are closely related to the audiovisual work (e.g. identifying an audio track when it is separated from the visual component of a work). A criterion for including these related items should be the intention to broadcast them via a simultaneous one-to-many delivery mechanism.

4 page 4 Items that are distributed via a one-to-one file transfer mechanism should not be included in the scope of the V-ISAN system. Items that are not directly related to an audiovisual work could be covered by a separate but parallel identifier system. Linkages with an ISAN or V-ISAN should be handled by references in databases, not by expanding ISAN or V-ISAN into "catch-all" identifier systems. Participants then discussed ways of distinguishing the identifier space for ISAN and V-ISAN from that of a parallel "catch-all" identifier which might be developed. One option would be to hardpartition the V-ISAN by using the 65 th bit (at the start of the version segment) as an internal flag to indicate whether the entire 96 bit string was a V-ISAN or some parallel identifier of the same length. Another option would be to use an external wrapper or prefix to identify the type of identifier. Developing an external indicator for the "type of identifier" would be outside the scope of WG 1. The MPEG-21 project may be developing such a mechanism as part of its work on multimedia interoperability. [See the "Monitoring MPEG-21" page on the TC46/SC9 Web site at: < On the second day of the meeting Bill Miller reported that the SMPTE and ATSC representatives in attendance had agreed that using an external indicator for the type of identifier would be the preferred approach. DECISION: The WG agreed on the following as its response to the ATSC letter about expanding the scope of ISAN and V-ISAN: 1. The scope of ISAN itself will not be extended because the ISAN is a managed domain for the identification of audiovisual works. 2. The idea of turning the V-ISAN into an identifier for versions of audiovisual works and related content will be incorporated in the next draft of the standard. The eligible types of related content will have to be carefully delineated so as to avoid overlap with other identifiers such as ISBN. 3. A parallel identifier system for broadcast entities that are not directly related to audiovisual content could be developed, if desired, by other interested parties. The caveat is that any identifier parallel to V-ISAN must not adversely affect the ISAN system or compromise its integrity. It should remain clear that ISAN are for audiovisual works only and the 64 bit root identifier should be recognizable by default as an ISAN. The pros and cons of using an internal or external indicator to distinguish between V-ISAN and any parallel "catch-all" identifier would also have to be studied in greater depth with WG 1's involvement. André Chaubeau will convey this response in a letter to Mike Richer of the ATSC.

5 page 5 5. Discussion and development of Part 2: V-ISAN registration procedures Relevant documents: WG 1 N 195 revised (draft Part 2, Registration procedures); WG1 N 196 revised (draft of ISAN / V-ISAN handbook). Participants discussed some issues arising from the draft registration procedures and handbook. The next drafts of those documents will incorporate the following decisions: 1. In N 195 section 5, the definition of V-ISAN will be reworded to read "International Standard Audiovisual Number completed with a version identifier." 2. The statement that all V-ISAN registration agencies will also be ISAN agencies was deleted from the drafts (N 195, sections 7 & 10.3; N 196, section 6.4). The important thing is that the ISAN and V-ISAN application processes should be conveniently linked for the user even though the ISAN and V-ISAN registration processes are separate functions. 3. PAL and NTSC formats should be eligible for separate V-ISAN. The examples in N 195, section 9 will be reworded to clarify that such a change would be eligible for a new V-ISAN. 4. In the examples of changes for which new V-ISAN will not be issued (N 195, section 9), the exclusion of "a change in the metadata describing the work" needs to be reformulated. Does this refer to embedded MPEG-7 metadata, to metadata labels (e.g. title) printed on the recording medium, or to the external metadata recorded in the V-ISAN registration database? 5. N 195, Section 10.2 will specify that the Registration Authority for the V-ISAN is designated by ISO. 6. The V-ISAN standard must not override the specifications of the ISAN standard. Footnote 3 in document N 195, section 10.3 (concerning rights management by V-ISAN agencies) will be deleted. 7. The descriptive information for registration of versions (N 195, section 11) will be reworked to accommodate a registration system that might have multiple version trees for each audiovisual work. Explanation: N 195 and N 196 currently describe a registration system which would be based on a hierarchical tree (or path) of version registrations for each audiovisual work. Each registration in the V-ISAN system would be linked to a previously registered version, forming an unbroken chain of sequential registrations. This construct assumes that each branch of the "version tree" could be traced back to a single ancestor (i.e. "version 1", the first version registered) and that the various branches of a version tree will never join up (N 196, footnote 16). The result is that the key distinction between each version registered in the V-ISAN system would be the preceding version from which it was derived. For example, if version 5 was a restoration of scenes that originally appeared in version 1, version 5 would still be registered as a new version even though its content matched the first registered version in all respects. Richard Hopper reported that the BBC's data analysts have done a study of the version issue. In practice there are often multiple sources of content involved in creating a new version. There must be enough metadata in the V-ISAN registration records to discriminate between any two versions as separate entities. Jane Thacker expressed doubt that there would only be one sequential chain or single path of version registrations for each audiovisual work within the V-ISAN system. She felt that

6 page 6 it was inadequate to rely on the V-ISAN of a previous version as the main description for any new versions being registered. The metadata should describe each registered version in such a way that each version is uniquely distinguished from all other versions in the V- ISAN system, regardless of the sequential chain(s) for those other version registrations. 8. Additional descriptive information will be elaborated for the registration data in N 195, section 11. The types of "status" indicator for eligible versions will also need to be worked out (e.g., not released, in-house edit, etc.). The V-ISAN standard will include an Annex on mandatory and optional registration data, similar to Annex D in the ISAN standard. 9. Future drafts should also address the intended accessibility of registration information in the V-ISAN system. Regarding cooperation among competing V-ISAN registration agencies (N 195, section 10.3, item 11), Ken Carter pointed out that businesses who contributed to the start-up of the V-ISAN system would likely object to having competitors enter the system as new registration agencies and use its infrastructure without having incurred the costs ("heavy lifting") of its creation. A business case for the V-ISAN system must be developed. Ken Carter said that companies such as listings services need a viable business model for the V-ISAN before committing to participate in its development. They are not likely to leverage the V-ISAN database into existence from their existing services if they cannot operate within the system at a profit. Bill Miller responded that the business case should also take account of the back-end savings that would be gained by using V- ISAN to increase business efficiency and reduce manual input of data. Richard Hopper suggested that, from a business perspective, the global registration of versions might not be the best approach since most versions are targeted to specific markets. Mike Dolan suggested that an alternative model would be for the ISAN database to incorporate a resolution mechanism to version registrars. For example, ABC would register with the ISAN Authority to be the registrar for ABC's versions of a work. This approach would do away with the need for a parallel V-ISAN database for versions but it would require reconfiguring the ISAN database to include additional information and a resolution mechanism. The information in distributed registrar databases could be accessed by performing automated queries on the ISAN component across multiple databases. Carol Cooper expressed concern about whether such a system would be cumbersome for collecting societies who deal with broadcasters. Craig Finseth noted that two properties of the centralized system would be lost: a) permanence, e.g., if ABC shut down its server all information on ABC-registered versions would be lost; and b) innumerability, i.e., an aggregate source of information on all versions of a work. DECISIONS: The Working Group will study whether a centralized database is the best model for the V-ISAN system. Mike Dolan will prepare a document by October 15 th to describe how a version identification system might be based on resolution from the ISAN system to individual registrars of versions. This could also help to clarify the interface between TV-Anytime's Content Reference Identifier (CRID) and the ISAN system. The EBU appears interested in CRID and it would be helpful to explain the benefits of ISAN in those terms. Jane Thacker will modify V-ISAN Part 2 (Registration procedures) to incorporate the decisions and/or questions discussed at this meeting and will post the revised draft to VISAN-L for additional comment in advance of the next meeting.

7 page 7 6. Membership or liaisons More participation is needed from key stakeholders in V-ISAN implementation, preferably as appointees to the Working Group from ISO's member bodies or official liaison organizations. The V-ISAN standard must accommodate international requirements and concerns. Representation from the European Broadcasting Union would help in identifying and addressing those requirements. André Chaubeau will write to various regional organizations of broadcasters to inform them of the V-ISAN project and invite their participation. Bill Miller will encourage SMPTE's international contacts to participate in V-ISAN discussions. Mike Dolan suggested that Art Allison of the U.S. National Association of Broadcasters should be invited to participate. Bill Miller suggested inviting Richard Green, Chairman of the International Telecommunication Union's Study Group 9 on "Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission". The World Broadcasting Union's Technical Committee should also be contacted. WG members who know of other potential stakeholders in the broadcast industry should send the names and addresses of contact persons to André Chaubeau or Jane Thacker. Jane Thacker will prepare a list of the official nominees to date from ISO's member bodies and liaison organizations. The VISAN-L discussion list for this project will be open to other subscribers if they are technical experts and stakeholders for V-ISAN implementation. Craig Finseth proposed establishing sub-groups to work on specific aspects of the V-ISAN project (e.g. technical notation, the business model, etc.). Sub-groups will be considered at a later date when the WG's membership includes more representation from organizations that are potential administrators or implementors of the V-ISAN system. 7. Other business Jane Thacker will forward information about the MPEG-21 project on Digital Item Identification to the V-ISAN reflector. Richard Hopper reported on the BBC's data model which cites ISAN and V-ISAN. He will supply the URL for the online version of the BBC's data model via the V-ISAN reflector. 8. Arrangements for the next meeting The next meeting is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, November 15-16, 2002 in San Diego, California. Mike Dolan will handle local arrangements for the San Diego meeting. Agenda topics for the next meeting will include: data required for version registration the distributed database model for version registration the revised draft on registration procedures

8 page 8 9. Appreciations AGICOA was thanked for its hospitality in hosting the meeting. Participants thanked Craig Finseth for preparing the drafts discussed at the meeting and expressed the hope that he would be able to continue his participation in the V-ISAN project.

9 All members ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 201 page 9 Tasks assigned at the September 2002 meeting of WG 1 To forward contact information for potential V-ISAN stakeholders to André Chaubeau or Jane Thacker. André Chaubeau To respond to the ATSC letter To send an announcement to the Working Group members via ISAN-L and VISAN-L when the contract establishing the International ISAN Agency is signed and registered with the Swiss authorities. Jane Thacker To revise Part 1 of the V-ISAN draft (in N 194) to cover versions and related content and distribute it via VISAN-L by October 2 nd for review and comment To modify Part 2 of the V-ISAN draft (N 195) to incorporate the decisions and questions discussed at this meeting and post the revised draft to VISAN-L for comment in advance of the November meeting. To forward information about the MPEG-21 project on Digital Item Identification to the V- ISAN reflector. To supply André Chaubeau with a list of the official WG nominees from ISO members and liaison organizations for the V-ISAN project. To check whether the SC9 Secretariat can propose a PAS on behalf of the Working Group. Merrill Weiss To supply names of additional SMPTE and ATSC members who should receive copies of the revised Working Draft for Part 1. Mike Dolan To prepare a document by October 15 th describing a distributed database model for the V- ISAN system based on resolution from the ISAN system to individual registrars for versions. To handle local arrangements for a WG 1 meeting in San Diego, California on November 15-16, Richard Hopper To send a message to VISAN-L giving the URL for the online version of the BBC's data model. Bill Miller To send André Chaubeau the name and address of a contact person for the World Broadcasting Union's Technical Committee.