This document discusses Simon & Schuster's use of XML to manage intellectual property rights. It outlines their goals of understanding and capitalizing on all rights for content, being able to use content across formats, and effectively promoting works. Their approach involves comprehensive author contracts detailing all rights. They built a rights database in XML to track rights at varying levels of granularity. This allows them to deal with rights for individual components and leverage XML data to streamline creation of contracts and maintaining rights information for reprints and reuses, saving costs.

1. Leveraging XML for IP Rights
Gaining Control of
Intellectual Property Rights
Steve Kotrch
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster

2. • Background
• Goals
• Approach
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3. Background
• Book publisher
since 1924
• FicIon
• Non‐ficIon
• Audio
• Children’s
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4. Background
Our business hinges on the licensing of
intellectual property—not only from authors
but illustrators and photographers.
In general these licenses have limits.
The Internet has made copyright more
complicated, introducing new challenges in
enforcing and managing rights.
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5. Goals
• Understand and capitalize on the rights for
the book, i.e., publish content and sell rights.
• Be able to use the content in a variety of
formats, i.e., move to digital, online, chunk
selling, POD.
• Be able to promote the work effecIvely.
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6. Approach: the Author Contract
Rights for the enIre book
•
All of the content the author provides
•
Regions, languages
•
Media: hard cover, so[ cover, audio, ebook,
•
etc.
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7. The Rights Database
We can drill down to see specifics, including rights sold.
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8. Dealing with Components
An online arIcle
found recently
in a famous
illustrated
magazine
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9. Dealing with Components
Same magazine,
different movie star
in an arIcle dated
12/71
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10. Dealing with Components
• Is XML the answer?
• PRISM has a soluIon for magazines . . .
• . . . But it doesn’t address our needs.
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11. Leveraging XML Data
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12. Leveraging XML Data
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13. Leveraging XML Data
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14. Leveraging XML Data
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15. Leveraging XML Data
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16. Leveraging XML Data
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17. Leveraging XML Data
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18. Leveraging XML Data
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19. Summary of Savings
• CreaIon of iniIal P.O. or contract
• Maintaining rights on reprint orders
• Obtaining rights info and minimizing royalty
costs on re‐use and repurposing
• DistribuIng rights info to rights customers
• Streamlining rights control at the digital asset
distributor
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20. Thank You
Steve Kotrch
Director of Publishing Technology
Simon & Schuster
steve.kotrch@simonandschuster.com
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