Global Standardization Activities

Standardization Activities in the Content
Reference Forum
Hiroyuki Yamashita, Kenichi Minami,and Tsutomu Horioka
Abstract
Standardization of a framework for reliable content commerce in a peer-to-peer environment has started. The framework will provide information about how to purchase content and about terms and conditions for using it, as well as rewards for referrers who introduce the content to others. There has been discussion about an experiment to be conducted at the end of 2003.

1. Background of content commerceContent commerce based on viral marketing*1 has
now become a reality. However, most of the content
exchanged through peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing
systems is not properly regulated and is unreliable.
There is no guarantee that a massive downloaded file
will function successfully. Furthermore, in manycases, the intellectual property rights of the content
creators are not protected, and the essential players inviral marketing such as consumers do not obtain any
benefit. Furthermore, the content cannot be provided
in a common file format because of the distribution
channels, regional restrictions and rights, and usage
environments. We must solve these problems anddevelop an efficient viral marketing and content distribution mechanism that enables consumers toobtain the best content for their usage environment
and preferences. We must also support new businessmodels that take into consideration the benefits ofparticipants in the value-chain*2. The top-priority
issues are as follows.
• Referring to content in an abstract manner insteadof referring to specific files (This abstract data iscalled a content reference (CR)).
• Tracking value-chain paths.
• Controlling value-chain participants and allotting
NTT Cyber Solutions LaboratoriesYokosuka-shi, 239-0847
E-mail: crf-info@lab.ntt.co.jp

Vol. 1 No. 9 Dec. 2003

rewards based on their contributions.
• Obtaining consumer contexts (information aboutusage environments).
• Expressing CR, value-chain information, and thecontexts.
2. Goal and plans
The goal of the Content Reference Forum (CRF)[1] is to examine the above issues and construct aframework and develop specifications that will establish trustworthy content commerce in the P2P environment, in other words, to actively distribute suitable content to consumers under suitable usage conditions.
There already exist several standards bodies thatare working on part of the framework, such as ISO/
MPEG-21 (ISO: International Organization for Standardization, MPEG-21: Moving Picture Experts
Group-21) [2], W3C (World Wide Web Consortium),
DOI/IDF (DOI: Digital Object Identifier, IDF:International DOI Foundation) [3], cIDf (Content IDForum) [4], WS-I (Web Services Interoperability*1 Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential
for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence.
*2 The value-chain that we refer to here is slightly different from theordinary marketing term. It focuses specifically on players, who
contribute to the distribution of the content, and we do not take
into account production processes whereas an ordinary valuechain or supply-chain does.

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Global Standardization Activities

Organization) [5], and OASIS (Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards)[6]. These are conducting standardization within theirown vision. However, their standards are insufficient
to fully realize the framework of the CRF, so we havebeen working closely with them by incorporating
their existing standards as much as possible to develop missing specifications for the CR data format,
contract expression, and the Reference Service (RS)within the CRF.
3. Framework for content reference
The framework that the CRF is aiming at is shownin Fig. 1. Assume that User A in the US is watchinga movie on cable TV and likes it so much that he tells
his friend, User B in Japan, about it. User A sends
sufficient CR information to User B so that she canfind the same movie locally. The CR includes suchinformation as title, cast list, synopsis, and enoughmetadata to identify the movie. If she is interested,
User B sends the CR to an RS server with additional
information about herself (hardware/software components and personal information permitted to be disclosed). The RS server returns information about
using the content in her specific environment. Thistells User B, for example, that she can watch themovie for 300 yen by streaming it from an Internet
site or purchase it as a DVD for 3000 yen at another
online site. The RS server may also introduce othermovies starring the same actor, a site that sells Tshirts of the actor, and other related services. The
information presented to User B (which we call the“Offer”) is generated based on contracts or businesslogic held by the RS. User B chooses the desired
information and purchases it. Upon completion of thepurchase process, rewards are allotted based on theContent holders,Distributors,
e-Contract
Retailers• Contract• Business logic
User A

information on the value-chain participants (in thiscase, User A as a referrer) that are collected along thewhole procedure.
Necessary elements for the framework are as follows:
q CR: XML-based metadata for identifying content and expressing user context information
w Offer: XML-based information about where
one can purchase the content and about related
content/services
e e-Contract: business logic expressed by theContract Expression Language (CEL), which
includes information such as sales rules andusage conditionsr RS: a service that generates and returns information (Offers) that may satisfy the user’s
request based on the provided information in
the CR and e-Contract
t Value-chain management: Participants
involved in the content commerce are traced
and managed as a value-chain. Participants aregiven rewards when the purchase is complete.
4. Organization and activities
Discussion on the establishment of CRF began inMay 2002, and CRF was formed in March 2003. This
forum is made up of six companies (all are Principal
Members): NTT, ARM, ContentGuard, Microsoft,Universal Music Group, VeriSign, and Macrovision.
The organization consists of the Board of Governors
and four Working Groups (Table 1). We have beenworking vigorously on developing specifications andprofiles for the experiment to be carried out aroundthe end of 2003.

Referenceservice server

CR +context info

CR including
metadata

How to obtainan “Offer”
Information about
related contents andrelated services
User B

STB
Introduce to a friend
Context of User A

Value-chain management
Allot rewards
to value-chain participantsContext of User BPurchaseEC site

STB: set-top box, EC: electronic commerce, CR: content reference

Fig. 1. Basic model of content reference framework.

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NTT Technical Review

Global Standardization Activities

Table 1. Working groups in CRF.
Working group

ChairmanWork items

RA (requirements & architecture)

UMG

Architectural framework, functional requirements, and usage case scenarios

CR (content reference)

UMG

Format of CR and Offer

CEL (contract expression language)

ContentGuard

CEL

RS (reference services)

NTTRS, communication protocol among RSs

5. NTT’s actzivities
Hiroyuki Yamashita

NTT has been actively participating in the CRF
because CRF’s goal is promising for the future framework of the content commerce, and it aligns well withthe strategy of metadata distribution in NTT’s R&D
scheme. Currently, two positions in the CRF are held
by NTT: one board member and the RS working
group chair. Technically, NTT has incorporated into
the framework of the CRF the concept of “Related
Service Offering” [7], which provides related content
and services as well as the basic RS functionalities ofobtaining the designated content and its usage conditions.
We are currently developing specifications and a
prototype system for the experiment planned for theend of 2003. This experiment will examine the feasibility of the selected technologies and business models, and the specifications will be reflected in otherstandards.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

http://www.crforum.org/
http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/
http://www.doi.org/
http://www.cidf.org/
http://www.ws-i.org/
http://www.oasis-open.org/
H. Sakamoto, H. Fujii, S. Irie, and H. Yamashita, “Service Gateway
to Enable the Introduction of Content Related Services,” ICME2001,Tokyo, Japan, P150, pp. 637-640, Aug. 2001.

Vol. 1 No. 9 Dec. 2003

Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, Content Commerce Project, NTT Cyber Solutions
Laboratories.
He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Kyoto University, Kyoto in
1979 and 1981, respectively. Since entering NTT
Laboratories in 1981, he has been engaged indevelopmental research on communication control processors, communication software, and its
development systems. Since 1992, he has been
engaged in research on fault tolerance and distributed computing in the environments of highspeed, broadband telecommunications networks,and since 1997 he has been engaged in global
R&D strategic planning and promotion. He iscurrently studying content distribution and copyright management. He received the NTT President’s Award in 2002. He is a member of theInstitute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan, theInformation Processing Society of Japan, andIEEE. Since 2003, he has also been the Secretary
General of the Content ID Forum.

Kenichi Minami
Research Engineer, Content Commerce Project, NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories.
He received the B.E. degree in electronic engineering and the M.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Keio University, Kanagawa in
1991 and 1993, respectively. He has been
engaged in R&D on automatic video archiving
system and metadata creation techniques. His
research interests include image and audio processing, user interfaces, content authentication,and digital rights expression.

Tsutomu Horioka
Research Engineer, Content Commerce Project, NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories.
He received the M.S. degree in information
systems from the Japan Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology, Ishikawa in 1995.
Since joining NTT Laboratories, he has been
actively engaged in developmental research on
content distribution and its standardization. His
current research interests include the study ofP2P content distribution and contract management. He is a member of IEICE.

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