I still haven't found the time to properly grok DRUMS - but here's a start....
DRUMS: Scott Mathews Proposes a File-Sharing Solution for Media Metadata.
DRUMS is here. Scott has been working on Andromedia, an MP3 server system for a while. c|net, PCUser, techTV, Macworld, ClearChannel, O'Reilly and more have all used and endorsed that system for streaming your MP3s. Scott's new idea, which stands for Digital Rights Uniform Metadata Service, is worth considering and while it's a work in progress, it's a great start. It's a "new centralized/distributed metadatabase of authored works."
Essentially, the idea is to create a central database, along with an authority (or a handful of authorities) that can add/update it. The root DRUMS database would likely include data such as author names, work titles, publication dates, types of work, file checksums, flags indicating which rights remain reserved and which rights have been granted, and so on. It would not contain the actual works themselves.
It would then be propogated across the internet, so that when people release works that are open for copying, systems will have a metadata reference to check this, and then maybe check for new releases as well. It would allow DJ's and others to find works that could be freely shared. Or find works that are licensed in some particular way, so that people can respond appropriately.
Send Scott suggestions as he considers this a group process.
I'd be interested in what Brian Zisk, Robert Kaye, Ted Cohen, Lucas Gonze and other phosters think of this....
[Marc's Voice]