Douglas Armati
Encyclopedia
Douglas "Doug" Armati is an Australia
n writer
, researcher
, consultant
, business development executive and technical diplomat.
Doug Armati undertook seminal independent research work on digital
copyright
issues at Murdoch University
in Western Australia
in 1990-91 before taking a leading role in international efforts to standardize the identification of digital objects.
After a speech on the importance and potential economic benefits of uniform approach to identification of digitized copyright content to the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers
at the Frankfurt Book Fair
in October 1994 he wrote two pivotal reports in 1995 - the first for the STM group on Information Identification and the second for the Association of American Publishers
on Uniform File Identifiers. Armati's work for these leading global publishing bodies on both sides of the Atlantic was an important catalyst for the birth of the Digital Object Identifier
Foundation.
His 1996 speech at the joint ICSU/UNESCO
Electronic Publishing in Science conference in Paris on "Tools and standards for protection, control and archiving" and his book later that year on "Intellectual Property in Electronic Environments" both helped frame the legal, scientific and technical debate in the emerging field of Digital Rights Management
. Armati was also part of the digital copyright experts group that worked closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization
in the period leading up to the ratification of the WIPO Copyright Treaty in December 1996.
In 1996 Armati joined InterTrust Technologies
, the leading company in the then nascent field of Digital Rights Management
, where he was a member of the leadership group through the company's 1999 IPO until its sale to Sony
and Philips
in early 2003.
During his time with InterTrust, Armati was also active in international standards groups, having been a vice-chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America
's international Secure Digital Music Initiative
, a board member of the Open eBook Forum (now the International Digital Publishing Forum
) and a significant contributor to the Moving Picture Experts Group
(MPEG), particularly in the development of a standard for the management and protection of intellectual property
in MPEG-4
, MPEG-7
and MPEG-21
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
, business development executive and technical diplomat.
Doug Armati undertook seminal independent research work on digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
issues at Murdoch University
Murdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university based in Perth, Australia. It began operations as the state's second university in 1973, and accepted its first students in 1975...
in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
in 1990-91 before taking a leading role in international efforts to standardize the identification of digital objects.
After a speech on the importance and potential economic benefits of uniform approach to identification of digitized copyright content to the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers
International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers
The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers is an international trade association organised and run for the benefit of scholarly, scientific, technical, medical and professional publishers...
at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. As to the number of visitors, the Turin Book Fair attracts about as many visitors, viz. some 300,000....
in October 1994 he wrote two pivotal reports in 1995 - the first for the STM group on Information Identification and the second for the Association of American Publishers
Association of American Publishers
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly...
on Uniform File Identifiers. Armati's work for these leading global publishing bodies on both sides of the Atlantic was an important catalyst for the birth of the Digital Object Identifier
Digital object identifier
A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an object such as an electronic document. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found...
Foundation.
His 1996 speech at the joint ICSU/UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Electronic Publishing in Science conference in Paris on "Tools and standards for protection, control and archiving" and his book later that year on "Intellectual Property in Electronic Environments" both helped frame the legal, scientific and technical debate in the emerging field of Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
. Armati was also part of the digital copyright experts group that worked closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world"....
in the period leading up to the ratification of the WIPO Copyright Treaty in December 1996.
In 1996 Armati joined InterTrust Technologies
InterTrust Technologies
Intertrust Technologies Corporation invents, develops, and licenses software, technologies and intellectual property for Digital Rights Management and trusted computing. The company holds over 150 patents and has over 300 patent applications pending worldwide...
, the leading company in the then nascent field of Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, where he was a member of the leadership group through the company's 1999 IPO until its sale to Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
and Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
in early 2003.
During his time with InterTrust, Armati was also active in international standards groups, having been a vice-chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
's international Secure Digital Music Initiative
Secure Digital Music Initiative
Secure Digital Music Initiative was a forum formed in late 1998, composed of more than 200 IT, consumer electronics, security technology, ISP and recording industry companies, ostensibly with the purpose of developing technology specifications that protected the playing, storing and distributing...
, a board member of the Open eBook Forum (now the International Digital Publishing Forum
International Digital Publishing Forum
The International Digital Publishing Forum is a trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry, that has been set up in order to establish a reliable and complete standard for ebook publishing....
) and a significant contributor to the Moving Picture Experts Group
Moving Picture Experts Group
The Moving Picture Experts Group is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 by the initiative of Hiroshi Yasuda and Leonardo Chiariglione, who has been from the beginning the Chairman...
(MPEG), particularly in the development of a standard for the management and protection of intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
in MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
, MPEG-7
MPEG-7
MPEG-7 is a multimedia content description standard. It was standardized in ISO/IEC 15938 . This description will be associated with the content itself, to allow fast and efficient searching for material that is of interest to the user. MPEG-7 is formally called Multimedia Content Description...
and MPEG-21
MPEG-21
The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...
.