As MCN's representative on the board of PLUS, I'd like to circulate the press release below. We expect to form a committee of PLUS museum members (current PLUS museum members: National Gallery of Art, MFA Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Israel Museum) to discuss extending the PLUS licensing terms to include museum-specific uses.
We hope to meet at MCN in DC this year. Thanks, Alan -- Alan Newman Chief, Digital Imaging & Visual Services National Gallery of Art ------------------------------------------------------------------ ACAP TO ADOPT PLUS IMAGE LICENSING STANDARDS Friday, June 20, 2008 Pasadena, CA: ACAP, the new, global, non-proprietary, machine-readable protocol that enables publishers to control how their online content is re-used, is to adopt semantics of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS). The PLUS standards simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights, providing for increased automation and machine readable image licenses. ACAP will use the PLUS License Data Format and PLUS Media Matrix standards to supplement the existing ACAP vocabulary for communicating license-related information in a machine-readable form to web crawlers and other automated devices that use web content. ACAP has previously concentrated on text-based web resources, and its adoption of PLUS semantics is part of a planned extension of ACAP to meet publisher requirements to communicate more precise terms for use of photographic and other media resources by web crawlers. Project Director Mark Bide said: "PLUS is a perfect fit for ACAP. We have said from the start that ACAP is not about re-inventing the wheel but about filling in the missing pieces of jigsaw to allow all content providers to express, in a machine-readable way, how they wish their content, whether that be pictures, music, film or the written word, to be re-used in the online environment." Jeff Sedlik, President and CEO of the PLUS Coalition said: "ACAP has made astounding progress in a very brief period. By adopting the PLUS standards, ACAP will now expand beyond textual content to the communication of image rights. The close collaboration between ACAP and PLUS will benefit everyone involved in creating, distributing, using and preserving images." About ACAP ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) is the result of an intensive - more - year-long pilot project between international publishers and search engines to devise a new, open, universal standard for the automated expression of permissions online. ACAP is the initiative of The European Publishers Council, the World Association of Newspapers and the International Publishers Association, set up as a response to industry-wide calls for a new communications tool to allow content providers to manage their online content. The main objective of ACAP is not to obstruct but, on the contrary, to enable more high-quality content to be made available and to encourage investment and innovation in the digital publishing sector. ACAP is a highly collaborative project and input from anyone with an interest in this area is encouraged to make their views known. Detailed information, including simple instructions on how to implement ACAP can be found at www.the-acap.org <http://www.the-acap.org/> About the PLUS Coalition The PLUS Coalition, an international non-profit organization, has developed the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS), a comprehensive system of standards that simplifies and facilitates the communication and management of image rights. PLUS is a collaboration between major stakeholders in all industries involved in creating, distributing, using and preserving images. PLUS supports multi-lingual use, global commerce and the preservation and exchange of cultural heritage. The PLUS Coalition receives generous financial and logistical support from Adobe, Pentagram, Adbase, Jupiterimages, Belay Development, Capture Ltd, Digimarc, Digital Railroad, Gettyimages, IDEAlliance, ImageSpan, IPNstock.com, IPTC, PACA, PDN, Photoserve.com, StockPhotoFinder, Synergy Communications and WongDoody. Significant additional support provided by sustaining members Burke-Triolo, Corbis, Masterfile, NewsCom, PicScout, and Workbook. Learn more about PLUS at www.usePLUS.org For further information, please contact: ACAP Heidi Lambert +44 1245 476 265 heidilambert at hlcltd.demon.co.uk Mark Bide +44 207 620 4445 mark.bide at rightscom.com PLUS Lou Desiderio +1 917 627 0912 press at usePLUS.org Jeff Sedlik +1 626 405 8100 info at usePLUS.org
