scope:

This International Standard is a reference model for digital rights management (DRM) functionality for geospatial resources (GeoDRM). As such, it is connected to the general DRM market in that geospatial resources must be treated as nearly as possible like other resources, such as music, text, or services.

This International Standard defines:

- A conceptual model for digital rights management of geospatial resources, providing a framework and reference for more detailed specification in this area.

- A metadata model for the expression of rights that associate users to the acts that they can perform against a particular geospatial resource, and associated information used in the enforcement and granting of those rights, such as owner metadata, available rights, and issuer of those rights.

- Requirements that are placed on rights management systems for the enforcement of those rights.

NOTE A rights management system must be necessary and sufficient: it must implement only those restrictions necessary to enforce the rights defined therein, and it must be sufficient to enforce those rights.

- How this is to work conceptually in the larger DRM context to ensure the ubiquity of geospatial resources in the general services market.

A resource in this context is a data file, or service for geographic information or process.

This abstract descriptive International Standard builds on and complements the existing standards, and defines at an abstract level a rights model to enable the digital rights management of standards-based geospatial resources. Future GeoDRM standards will be written to implement the concepts defined in this International Standard.

This International Standard is not intended to delve into questions of morals, ethics, market model, or implementations any further than is necessary to express requirements against rights management functionalities and systems.