1. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 1 New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society By Armands Strazds, Riga Technical University, April 2005 IST 4 Balt, 2005

2. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 2 Why is intelectual property protection important? Creativity and innovation are the new drivers of the world economy Intellectual property plays an important role in an increasingly broad range of areas An effective author rights protection system is the foundation of how country is developing its intellectual capital

3. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 3 What are the challenges? Intangible nature of intellectual property Worldwide inconsistency of standard practices Patents, trademarks and copyrights are all products of the industrial society and are not meant for safeguarding the information-based products A need for an intellectual property rights system, that is able to give credit where, and when, it is due

4. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 4 The new approach: iZIME (Idea-ZIME) Modern algorithms provide us with the possibility to represent any portion of information (like a business idea, but also cultural and scientific resources) in a standardized manner This kind of information representation does not allow insight into the information itself, but only verifies its consistency The iZIME approach makes use of the so called “hashing” algorithms in order to protect (seal) the intellectual property and at the same time give credit (verify) it electronically on demand

5. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 5 Metadata to encode into iZIME Message:Encode ideas into ZIME in order to protect them. (Author: Armands Strazds) Identity Nr.: 311270-13727 Timestamp: 200504071230 CA ID: ZIME CA (Keywords:intellectual property, encoding, ZIME)

6. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 6 “Hashing” The full message runs through the hashing algorithm (md5, DWD or similar) resulting in a 64 bits long string Function produces 18.446.744.073.709.551.616 = 16^16 unique hash numbers. The probability of two different messages resulting in the same hash is extremely low Any minor change in the message must result in a distinctively different hash, ensuring data integrity

7. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 7 Storing data to the database Unique ID:000000000001 Message Hash:0123456789ABCDEF Author’s Identity Nr.: 311270-13727 Timestamp: 200504071230 CA ID: ZIME CA

8. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 8 Visualizing iZIME iZIME ID:000000000001 Hash:0140CFBEBEE5E5C0 Author:Armands Strazds Creation time: 07.04.2005 12:30 CA: ZIME CA

9. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 9 Distributing iZIME CA publishes iZIMEs on the centralized iZIME public server and gives commercial and/or non-commercial access to them The more the intellectual property owner distributes iZIMEs in a physical and/or virtual form, the more effective protection of the author rights she gains

10. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 10 Verifying iZIME Author is responsible of storing the encoded information (including all metadata) in a safe (even physical) location. Only a person posessing all metadata can reproduce iZIME to proof its consistency. =

11. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 11 Commercial or non-commercial? Everyone may have a non-commercial access to iZIME server in order to verify intellectual property information against one selected iZIME All other services (like e.g. searches over the whole database, statistical information, etc.) may be commercial

12. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 12 Why is iZIME efficient? Modern hashing algorithms are considered extremely safe: “there's no way to reconstruct the original message from the hash, any more than a sausage can be turned back into a pig.” (Greg Goebel, Contemporary Cryptology, 2004)

13. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 13 Any questions / comments on iZIME? Can iZIME be of the same legal protection strength as a patent, trademark or copyright? How can I protect my idea using iZIME today? Is it possible to implement iZIME standard in Latvia? Who are the authors of iZIME anyway?

14. IST4Balt Workshop - April 7, 2005 - New approach for protection of author rights in knowledge society 14 Stay tuned to ZIME… http://www.zime.lv