ISO/IEC 21000-19:2010

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 21000-19
First edition
2010-06-15
Information technology — Multimedia
framework (MPEG-21) —
Part 19:
Media Value Chain Ontology
Technologies de l'information — Cadre multimédia (MPEG-21) —
Partie 19: Ontologie de chaîne de valeur de média

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2010
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ii © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction.vi
1 Scope.1
2 Normative references.1
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms.2
3.1 Terms and definitions .2
3.2 Abbreviated terms .6
4 Conventions.7
4.1 Documentation conventions .7
4.2 Namespace prefix conventions .8
5 Relationship to other ISO/IEC 21000 Parts .9
6 Media Value Chain Model .9
6.1 Introduction.9
6.2 Fundamentals of Intellectual Property.9
6.3 Description of the IP Entity relations within the Value Chain.10
6.4 IP Entities .12
6.5 Singular vs Composite IP Entities .12
6.6 Use Data .12
6.7 Users (Single vs Collective) .13
6.8 Roles.13
6.9 Actions.14
6.10 Permissions .14
7 Media Value Chain Representation .15
7.1 Introduction.15
7.2 Ontology General Features .15
7.3 Description of MVCO Classes.17
7.4 Reference of properties .27
Annex A (informative) Media Value Chain Ontology Use .30
Annex B (normative) MVCO OWL.48
Bibliography.73

© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of the joint technical committee is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as
an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 21000-19 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information.
ISO/IEC 21000 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Multimedia
framework (MPEG-21):
⎯ Part 1: Vision, Technologies and Strategy [Technical Report]
⎯ Part 2: Digital Item Declaration
⎯ Part 3: Digital Item Identification
⎯ Part 4: Intellectual Property Management and Protection Components
⎯ Part 5: Rights Expression Language
⎯ Part 6: Rights Data Dictionary
⎯ Part 7: Digital Item Adaptation
⎯ Part 8: Reference Software
⎯ Part 9: File Format
⎯ Part 10: Digital Item Processing
⎯ Part 11: Evaluation Tools for Persistent Association Technologies [Technical Report]
⎯ Part 12: Test Bed for MPEG-21 Resource Delivery [Technical Report]
⎯ Part 14: Conformance Testing
⎯ Part 15: Event Reporting
iv © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

⎯ Part 16: Binary Format
⎯ Part 17: Fragment Identification of MPEG Resources
⎯ Part 18: Digital Item Streaming
⎯ Part 19: Media Value Chain Ontology
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved v

Introduction
Today, many elements exist to build an infrastructure for the delivery and consumption of multimedia content.
There was, however, no “big picture” to describe how these elements, either in existence or under
development, relate to each other. The aim for the set of standards ISO/IEC 21000 has been to describe how
these various elements fit together. New standards as appropriate will be developed while other relevant
standards may be developed by other bodies.
The result is an open framework for multimedia delivery and consumption, with both the content creator and
content consumer as focal points. This open framework provides content creators and service providers with
equal opportunities in the ISO/IEC 21000-enabled open market. This will also be to the benefit of the content
consumer providing them access to a large variety of content in an interoperable manner. The vision for
ISO/IEC 21000 is to define a multimedia framework to enable transparent and augmented use of multimedia
resources across a wide range of networks and devices used by different communities.
This part of ISO/IEC 21000 specifies a machine readable ontology of the media value chain defining a minimal
set of kinds of intellectual property, the roles of the users interacting with them, and the relevant actions
regarding intellectual property among other features.

vi © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 21000-19:2010(E)

Information technology — Multimedia framework (MPEG-21) —
Part 19:
Media Value Chain Ontology
1 Scope
This Part of ISO/IEC 21000 describes MPEG-21 Media Value Chain Ontology (MVCO). The MVCO may be
used to capture knowledge about media value chains and to represent, in a computer readable way, concepts
in the domain and the relationships between those concepts.
This Part of ISO/IEC 21000 consists of seven Clauses and two Annexes. This technology is described in the
following sections of this Part of ISO/IEC 21000.
⎯ Model:
the model is described in Clause 6, by way of a narrative description of the Value Chain, its main
elements and relations.
⎯ Representation:
the MVCO has been formalised as a normative OWL Ontology, and the description of which is given in
this Clause. The description consists of listing the classes, the object properties, the datatype properties,
and the class individuals. Classes are described by giving the name, an English definition, the class
hierarchy, and the restrictions imposed on the class. The representation is given in Clause 7. Annex B
contains the normative OWL (XML/RDF) comprising the entire semantics of the elements in the model.
⎯ Ontology use:
an Informative section is provided with non normative descriptions of use, extensions and an API
(Annex A).
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC TR 21000-1, Information technology — Multimedia framework (MPEG-21) — Part 1: Vision,
Technologies and Strategy
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 1

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
3.1 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC TR 21000-1 and the following
apply.
NOTE Some of these definitions are taken from the Digital Media Project terminology, see Reference [16].
3.1.1
action
process of performing functions
3.1.2
adaptation
IP entity that is a work derived or adapted from another work
3.1.3
AdaptationInstance
IP entity that is an example of an identified AdaptationManifestation, for example a file
3.1.4
AdaptationInstanceCopy
IP entity that is a copy of an AdaptationInstance
3.1.5
AdaptationManifestation
IP entity (object or event) which is an expression of an Adaptation
3.1.6
AdaptationManifestationCopy
IP entity that is a copy of an AdaptationManifestation
3.1.7
adaptor
user who produces an adaptation and its AdaptationManifestations
3.1.8
anonymous
user whose identity is unknown
3.1.9
broadcast
action that delivers content to a device in a point-to-multipoint modality
3.1.10
collective
set of two or more users
3.1.11
content
one or more content elements
EXAMPLE A type of content is a digital item.
2 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

3.1.12
content elements
any of the following types of data: resource, metadata, nested content, license, IPMP data, IPMP tools, and
use data
3.1.13
ContentHandler
user who is appointed to act on content on behalf of another user and within the scope and responsibility of
that second user's rights
3.1.14
copy
mechanical reproduction of analogue or digital representation of a given IP entity
NOTE In the case of a digital copy the result is of virtually identical quality whilst in the case of an analogue copy the
result can vary considerably in quality.
3.1.15
CopyrightException
permission to invoke a right under exceptional circumstances, for example when a particular fact is true
3.1.16
CreateWork
action of creating a work without any previous IP entity
3.1.17
creator
author
user who generates a work and makes its manifestations
3.1.18
device
combination of hardware and software that allows a user to execute functions over content and/or IP entities
3.1.19
distribute
action of selling, renting or lending
3.1.20
distributor
user who distributes a product
3.1.21
download
action of transferring a file or program from a central computer to a smaller computer or to a computer at a
remote location
3.1.22
EndUser
user in a valuechain who ultimately consumes content
3.1.23
EndUser action
action performed by an EndUser
3.1.24
fact
positive proposition
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 3

3.1.25
identify
function of assigning a unique signifier that establishes the identity of entities, devices, content and content
elements
3.1.26
instance
IP entity (object or event) which is an example of an identified manifestation such as a file
3.1.27
instantiator
user who produces an instance
3.1.28
IP
intellectual property
any identifiable product of the mind attributable to any person(s) or one or more legal entities that can be
represented or communicated physically and protectable by copyright or similar laws
3.1.29
IP entity
type of IP represented by content: work, adaptation, manifestation, instance, product
3.1.30
MakeAdaptation
action of making an adaptation
3.1.31
MakeAdaptationManifestationCopy
action of making an AdaptationManifestationCopy
3.1.32
MakeAdaptationInstanceCopy
action of making an AdaptationInstanceCopy
3.1.33
MakeAdaptationInstance
action of making an instance from an AdaptationManifestation
3.1.34
MakeAdaptationManifestation
action of making an AdaptationManifestation
3.1.35
MakeCopy
action of making a copy
3.1.36
MakeInstance
action of making an instance from a manifestation
3.1.37
MakeManifestation
action of making a manifestation
3.1.38
MakeWorkInstanceCopy
action of making a WorkInstanceCopy
4 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

3.1.39
MakeWorkManifestationCopy
action of making a WorkManifestationCopy
3.1.40
MakeWorkInstance
action of making an instance from a WorkManifestation
3.1.41
MakeWorkManifestation
action of making a manifestation of a work
3.1.42
manifestation
IP entity (object or event) which is an expression of a work
3.1.43
permission
authorisation from one rights owner to one or more users to realise one or more actions on a given IP entity
3.1.44
private copy
action of storing content and holding it privately for non-commercial purposes
3.1.45
produce
action of making products
3.1.46
producer
user that makes products
3.1.47
product
IP entity that adds value to IP entities by including them with an appropriate licence for the purpose of
publishing
3.1.48
public communication
action of publicly displaying or performing
EXAMPLE Public communication can include live performance, radio, television, internet streaming, multicast of
instances and manifestations, and download.
3.1.49
render
action of converting a resource to a human-perceivable form
3.1.50
represent
expressing information in a form that can be processed by either a digital or analogue device
3.1.51
resource
data, whose representation is not specified by ISO/IEC 21000 (e.g. an MP3 file or an executable code), that
can be processed by a device
3.1.52
right
ability of performing one or more functions over IP entities as a consequence of ownership or permissions
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 5

3.1.53
role
defined set of actions and corresponding conditions attributed to, and required of, a user
3.1.54
synchronise
action of concurrently performing or displaying two or more distinct IP entities each for a different human
sense, for example text and audio, or video and song
3.1.55
use data
data documenting the functions performed by a device on a content item and the associated context
3.1.56
valuechain
group of interacting users, connecting (and including) creators to EndUsers
3.1.57
work
IP entity that is an original or derived creation that retains intellectual or artistic attributes independently of its
Manifestations
3.1.58
WorkInstance
IP entity (object or event) which is an example of an identified manifestation of a work
EXAMPLE A file is a WorkInstance.
3.1.59
WorkInstanceCopy
IP entity copy of a WorkInstance
3.1.60
WorkManifestation
IP entity (object or event) which is an expression of a work
3.1.61
WorkManifestationCopy
IP entity copy of a WorkManifestation
3.2 Abbreviated terms
B2B Business to Business
B2C Business to Consumer
IP Intellectual Property
MVCO Media Value Chain Ontology
OWL Web Ontology Language
OWL-DL OWL Description Logic
RDF Resource Description Framework
REL Rights Expression Language
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
6 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

URL Uniform Resource Locator
URN Uniform Resource Name
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
XML Extensible Markup Language
4 Conventions
4.1 Documentation conventions
The reader is informed that terms beginning with a capital letter (like “Work”) are used according to definitions
given in Clause 3. Terms referred to in the ontology elements are given with its namespace (e.g. mvco:Work).
4.1.1 Class description
7.2.4 provides a systematic enumeration of the MVCO classes. Some conventions are explained in this
subclause. For each OWL class, the following features may be given:
− Class name. The OWL class name, given as an owl:Class in the Ontology. Class names follow the
convention of using an uppercase for the first letter, and leaving no blankspaces or dashes between
words if more words are included. Qualified names start with the ontology URI, like
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/MVCO.owl#User
− Comment. The English definition, given as a rdfs:comment in the Ontology.
− Restrictions. A set of expressions with an accompanying human explanation that must hold for an
individual to belong to the class in question. Each of these propositions is either necessary
(introduced by the symbol ⊆) or necessary and sufficient (introduced by the symbol ≡). The former is
a condition that each class individual must satisfy, and the later is a condition which, if held, is enough
to state that the individual belongs to this class. Each restriction is given as a parent class of the class
in question, and can be one of the following:
− Existential restriction (“some”). Expressed by means of the owl:someValuesFrom OWL
element and represented here by the symbol ∃, it expresses the fact that an individual of this
class must be related to at least one individual of the given Range class. This is a quantifier
restriction.
− Universal restriction (“only”). Expressed by means of the owl:allValuesFrom OWL
element and represented here by the symbol ∀, it expresses the fact that an individual of this
class can only be related to individuals of the given Range class. This is a quantifier
restriction.
− Cardinality restrictions (“min”, “max,”, “exactly”). Determine the number of relationships
that an individual of this class must participate in (by giving a minimum, a maximum or an
exact number).
− Disjoint classes restriction. Classes can be required to be disjoint (i.e., a class individual may
not be allowed to belong to two given classes at the same time.), but disjoint classes have
not been represented in the enumeration.
− In-domain-of. Object Properties for which the given class is the Domain, if any.
− Known subclasses. Graphical representation of the known subclasses, if any.
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 7

Classes can be joint with the union operator, so that (mvco:Creator ∪ mvco:Adaptor) means the set of
individuals which are either Creator or Adaptor individuals (or both). The intersection operators ∩ defines
individuals belonging to both classes. Propositions can use the operators AND, OR and NOT (¬).
4.1.2 Property description
7.4 lists all the defined relations in the ontology. For each relation the following features may be given:
− Name. The name of the relation. Properties follow the convention of including as a first word an
English verb starting with a lowercase letter, followed by subsequent words starting with an uppercase
letter and no blankspaces or dashes in between.
− Description. Description of the relation, given as an English text in the rdfs:comment element.
− Domain of the property. Limits the individuals to which the property can be applied.
− Range of the property. Limits the individuals that the property may have as its value. In datatype
properties, only literal values are accepted.
− Characteristics of the property. These give a more precise description of the relation, stating
whether the property is symmetric, transitive, functional or inverse of the other property.
Object properties are represented in Figure 1 and Figure 3 of this document following this convention:
− Arcs represent object properties, the name of which is next to its head. The cardinality is given next to
its tail, indicating how many class individuals can be related to one individual. For example, 1.n
indicates that one individual can be linked with this property with one or more individuals.
− Source nodes are the domain of the object property.
− Sink nodes are the range of the object property.
4.2 Namespace prefix conventions
MVCO includes an initial rdf:RDF component with some XML namespace declarations. Namespaces provide
a means to unambiguously interpret identifiers and make the rest of the ontology presentation much more
readable. It also contains the base URI for this document and the default namespace, which has been chosen
as the URI of the document containing the ontology.
The ontology URI shall be http://purl.oclc.org/NET/mvco.owl. This is a permanent URI deemed to
provide a permanent reference regardless of the actual location of the MVCO ontology. The following
namespace conventions have been adopted:
Table 1 — Namespace prefixes
Namespace prefix Namespace
None (default namespace) http://purl.oclc.org/NET/mvco.owl#
xsd http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
rdf http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
rdfs http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#
owl http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#
dc http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
dii urn:mpeg:mpeg21:2002:01-DII-NS#
mx urn:mpeg:mpeg21:2003:01-REL-MX-NS#
daml http://www.daml.org/2001/03/daml+oil#
8 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

Dublin Core annotations (ISO 15836-2003) have been made to the ontology:
Annotation Value
dc:title Media Value Chain Ontology
dc:language en
5 Relationship to other ISO/IEC 21000 Parts
The Digital Item is the fundamental unit of distribution and transaction in the Multimedia framework. While the
different parts of ISO/IEC 21000 deal with the components and different aspects of Digital Items, together they
form a complete integrated interoperable framework. This Clause describes the relationship of this part of
ISO/IEC 21000 with other parts of ISO/IEC 21000 in addressing the Intellectual Property (IP) represented by
Digital Items and their elements as well as how such IP is subsequently handled by Users.
The MVCO represents a model integrating different elements of the ISO/IEC 21000 interoperable framework.
MVCO defines different types of objects subject to intellectual property; these IP Entities are represented
through Digital Items or parts thereof defined in ISO/IEC 21000-2. IP Entities represented as MVCO IP Entity
class instances are identified with the Digital Item Identifiers as described in ISO/IEC 21000-3. MVCO User
class instances refer to Users as conceived in ISO/IEC 21000-1.
Furthermore, MVCO based applications makes use of ISO/IEC 21000-15 (Event Reporting), e.g. events in
MVCO trigger Event Reports (ISO/IEC 21000-15), and ISO/IEC 21000-5 (Rights Expression Language), e.g.
to express permissions.
Also, ISO/IEC 21000-6 Rights Data Dictionary (RDD) and MVCO are complementary within the MPEG-21
Framework and their vocabularies may be jointly used within MVCO based applications according to users
needs. Many relationships between the elements in these two standards may be established without logical
contradictions or interpretative ambiguities.
6 Media Value Chain Model
6.1 Introduction
This Clause is intended to facilitate a high level understanding of the MVCO core model. Although all aspects
referenced are normative, the complete formal description is given in Clause 7 of this document.
The Media Value Chain Ontology is designed to represent common aspects of content creation, distribution,
use and handling. Central to this is the need to adhere to basic common notions related to Intellectual
Property.
6.2 Fundamentals of Intellectual Property
Any notion of Intellectual Property implies the existence of a minimum and necessary set of entities, roles,
rights and actions, each a corollary of the other. The objective and scope of the MVCO is to represent a
minimum set in a machine readable fashion either directly in a core model or through appropriate extensions.
While there are clear differences in the legal treatment of IP between different jurisdictions, this does not
mean that a common core between them does not exist. The existence of such a core is reflected by the
1)
numerous International World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO ) treaties such as the Berne
Convention where if it were not for a clear understanding of common terms such as work, adaptation,

1) The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines Intellectual Property as the creations of the mind:
inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 9

performance etc., it would not be possible for such a treaty to be assumed by 163 different national
jurisdictions. Presently, this common IP model lacks a standard computer representation that the MVCO
provides.
The kind of IP Entity represented by a Digital Item will be specified in the context of the MVCO, so that it is
possible that the same bits of a Digital Item may represent different kinds of IP (e.g., a Manifestation or
Product).
6.3 Description of the IP Entity relations within the Value Chain
As far as IP Entities are concerned, and for each IP Entity, Users have Roles associated to them (Creator,
Adaptor, Instantiator, Producer.) that represent the set of Actions that can be exercised on specific
corresponding IP Entities.
Figure 1 — Relations between Actions, Users and IP Entities
Figure 1 illustrates the fundamental relations. A User (subject) “acts” Action (verb), and Action is actedOver an
IP Entity (object). Finally, the IP Entity has a User as its rights owner. Each arc is labeled with the
corresponding relation with cardinality expressed in the direction indicated by the arrow heads as 0.1
(minimum number of arrow is 0 and maximum is 1), 0.n (0 to any number) and 1.1 (one to one).
The origin of any IP Value Chain necessarily consists of the creation and subsequent manifestation of the
original IP Entity referred to as a Work, the rights over which are exclusively of the Work’s author(s) unless as
otherwise determined by the author(s). This original IP Entity is subject to be used to create new dependent IP
Entities leading to what is referred to as a Value Chain. Rights for the exploitation of IP Entities can be
transferred along this value chain.
10 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

Figure 2 — Main IP Entities and Relating Actions in the IP Value Chain
The Figure above illustrates different IP Entities and the Actions that give rise to them, the formal
representation of which is given in Clause 7. Here, “Create Work” gives rise to “Work”, then by virtue of the
Action “MakeAdaptation” an “Adaptation” is made (from which other “Adaptations” can be generated).
“MakeManifestation” brings about “Manifestations” of both “Works” and “Adaptation”. “Manifestations” gives
rise to the possibility of the Actions “Produce”, “MakeCopy”, “MakeInstance” that in turn may give rise to
“Products”, “Copies” and “Instances” respectively.
Although not shown in the diagram, some IP Entities can be further specialiced, e.g. the Manifestation of a
Work is defined as WorkManifestation, while Manifestation of an Adaptation is defined as
AdaptationManifestation. Both are specializaitons of the more general concept Manifestations. The same can
be said about the Actions in the figure, where “MakeWorkManifestation” and “MakeAdaptationManifestation”
are specialisations of MakeManifestation.
Figure 3 represents the main classes in the Value Chain linked by the relationships “acts”, “actedOver” and
“resultsIn”. Each node represents a class (Actions in green, IPEntities in blue and Users in orange), whilst
each arc represents one of the object properties mentioned in 4.1.2. Note that for clarity, MakeManifestation is
common to Creator and Adaptor but each case refers to the appropriate sub classes MakeWorkManifestation
and MakeAdaptationManifestation.
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 11

Figure 3 — Diagram of classes connected by the relationships “acts”, “actedOver” and “resultsIn”
In Figure 3, dotted pattern represent Actions, vertical lines represent IP Entities and diagonal lines represent
User roles.
6.4 IP Entities
All entities subject to Intellectual Property are said to be IP Entities. The natural sequence of dependence
between IP Entities begins with the IP Entity Work and ends with Product from which copies can be made and
distributed. Intermediate IP Entities are Adaptation, Manifestation, Instance and corresponding Copies, as can
be seen in Figure 2. Each of these can be further specialized in extensions of the MVCO [audio, video, image,
text etc.]. Their definition is given in 3.1 in particular:
− Work. (See 3.1.57)
− Adaptation. (See 3.1.2)
− Manifestation. (See 3.1.42)
− Instance. (See 3.1.26)
− Copy. (See 3.1.14)
− Product. (See 3.1.47)
6.5 Singular vs Composite IP Entities
IP Entities may be singular objects while others maybe be made up of a combination of existing IP Entities
(e.g. a film has a script, a score, soundtrack etc.). We speak of these as “Composite IP Entities”. Usually a
Composite IP Entity will have several rights owners (Collective, (3.1.10) made up of the individual Creators of
each component.).
6.6 Use Data
Monitoring and exploiting Use Data may require the explicit authorisation from the User whose use data has
been collected. Since Use Data is not an IP Entity, a mvco:UseData class has been defined at the root-level.
Use Data can be further specialised as required in extensions of the MVCO.
12 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

6.7 Users (Single vs Collective)
In ISO/IEC TR 21000-1, a user is defined as an entity that interacts in the MPEG-21 environment or makes
use of a Digital Item. Such Users include individuals, consumers, communities, organisations, corporations,
consortia, governments and other standards bodies and initiatives around the world.
From the above it is clear that the class Users includes both single individuals as well as groups of individuals.
Moreover, it happens that a given User sometimes acts as part of a Collective of Users, in the sense that
several decision-enabled parties share jointly the responsibility for a given IP Entity or collectively hold certain
rights. The MVCO model explicitly acknowledges this by defining the specialisaition of User called Collective.
6.8 Roles
6.8.1 General
In order to operate within the MVCO and with respect to particular IP Entities, the relationship between a User
and a particular IP Entity type is specified formally in the ontology as specialisations of the Class User i.e.
Creator, Adaptor, Instantiator, Producer, Distributor and End-User and refer to the concept of Role. Thus and
depending on the IP Entiety in question any given User may take on any number of Roles within the MVCO.
Figure 4 illustrates the core Roles and the IP Entity by which they are linked. Definitions are given in
Clause 3.1.
− Creator. (See 3.1.17)
− Adaptor. (See 3.1.7)
− Instantiator. (See 3.1.27)
− Producer. (See 3.1.46)
− Distributor. (See 3.1.20)
− EndUser. (See 3.1.22)
Figure 4 — Roles and corresponding IP Entities along the Value Chain
The figure above, illustrates how Roles are linked through the transmission of IP Entities, “Creators” and
“Adaptors” produce “Manifestations” that are communicated and become known such that “Instantiators” can
make “Instances” and “Copies” etc. This set of core Roles can be extended to include further specialisations.
For example, from Distributor, two specialized Roles could be distinguished: ContentAggregator who may
operate in a B2B oriented model, and ContentProviders operating in a B2C oriented model. Both roles would
be specialisations of the generic Distributor Role and their definition would be wholly consistent with the
MVCO Core model.
6.8.2 Content Handlers
On occasions, Users delegate tasks for which they are ultimately responsible in other Users called Content
Handlers. This Role has no Rights associated with it other than those conferred solely by virtue of its
“surrogate” function of the User whose auspices it operates on Content. Thus, the MVCO model explicitly
acknowledges the class ContentHandler.
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 13

6.9 Actions
Actions are the process of doing something over IP Entities. Actions can be over the IP Entities themselves or
their representations be they either analogue or digital.
The Media Value Chain Ontology recognizes all actions affecting Intellectual Property. Besides creation of an
original Work, Actions that concern Intellectual Property are those that lead to the transformation of IP Entities,
their distribution, public communication and consumption.
The result of some Actions may imply the creation of new IP Entities (for example, a MakeAdaptation Action
generates a new IP Entity of the kind Adaptation) while others do not as in the case of Render.
Each of the Actions are executed by Users
− CreateWork. (See 3.1.16)
− MakeAdaptation. (See 3.1.30)
− MakeManifestation. (See 3.1.37)
− MakeInstance. (See 3.1.36)
− MakeCopy. (See 3.1.35) Similar to mechanical reproduction.
− Produce. (See 3.1.45)
− Distribute. (See 3.1.19)
− Public communication. (See 3.1.48)
− Synchronise. (See 3.1.54) Synchronisation implies the simultaneous rendition of two IP Entities
requiring the additional Permission of the Creator.
− EndUserAction. (See 3.1.23)
6.10 Permissions
6.10.1 General
Transfer of Rights are represented in Permissions. A Permission relates an IP Entity with the transmitted Right,
the original Rights owner and the new Rights owner. A Permission may require the prior satisfaction of
conditions. Requirements in Permissions are expressed as Facts, which are simply defined as positive
propositions with a binary truth value. A prohibition is thus expressed as the negation of a particular Fact.
Permissions are generally transferred from User to User consecutively along the Value Chain in the normal
course of business. However, in some cases Permissions may be required directly (i.e. not passed down
through relay) from the Creator to a User in order to authorise certain Actions, Examples of such cases are
Actions that require specific authorisation by the Creator each and everytime they are excercised by virtue of
the Creators´s moral rights such as in the case of PublicCommunication.
ISO/IEC 21000-5 licenses represent a set of Permissions that can be expressed in many ways in the context
of extensions of MVCO.
14 © ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved

Figure 5 — Relations of Permissions with other MVCO elements
Figure 5 expresses how Permissions are related to other MVCO elements. Required Facts and the Action that
is permitted is directly associated with the User that issues the Permission. The Action in turn and by its
corresponding associations defines over which IP Entity the permission is applied, by which User it can be
Acted and the type of IP Entity it may generate etc.
6.10.2 Copyright Exceptions
Some rights can be invoked by virtue of certain conditions (Facts) being met. For example, complete quotes
are allowed for scientific purposes. The MVCO Ontology provides mechanisms for specifying such copyright
exceptions, although the exceptions themselves are not specified. Permissions from one User to another are
not needed to invoke a CopyrightException, CopyrightExceptions are given based on the existence of the
corresponding CopyrightExceptionFact attributable to particular IP Entities and/or Users.
7 Media Value Chain Representation
7.1 Introduction
The core model presented so far has been represented as a Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology. Its
normative representation is the XML/RDF codification.
The Web Ontology Language is a specification from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) based on the
Resource Description Framework (RDF), keystone of the Semantic Web. Their codification can be as simple
as a single XML file which can be universally accessed. By using this model supported by existing technology
standards, companies can create end-to-end applications based on the MVCO Core Model described in
Clause 6 of this document.
The MVCO Core Model is fully described by giving a set of classes and properties of those classes. Clause 7
of this document provides an exhaustive review of all these classes and properties.
7.2 Ontology General Features
7.2.1 Ontology Sublanguage
OWL ontologies can be categorised into three species or sub-languages: OWL-Lite, OWL-DL and OWL-Full,
with increasing level of expressivity. OWL-DL is based on Description Logic, a decidable fragment of First
Order Logic which grants automated reasoning in a finite time.
The MVCO is consistent and uses the DL subset of the OWL language, granting thus its decidability and its
usability in practical applications.
© ISO/IEC 2010 – All rights reserved 15

7.2.2 Ontology Metrics
The main features of the MVCO ontology are summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 — Main features of MVCO
Property Value Property Value
owl:versionInfo 1.0 No. of functional properties 6
Total No. of classes 55 No. of inverse functional properties 0
Total No. of datatype properties 5 No. of transitive properties 2
Total No. of object properties 13 No. of symmetric properties 0
Total No. of annotation properties 4  No. of inverse properties 6
Total No. of individuals 1 Max depth of property tree 1
No. of disjoint axioms 68 Max dept of class tree 3
2)
Expressivity Avg. branching factor of class tree 6.75
SIF(D)
7.2.3 Ontology Versioning
Classes and properties have been annotated with the owl:versionInfo tag. This tag version is 1.0 in the first
edition of the International Standard. Possible corrigenda to the standard should upgrade the decimal (e.g. 1.1,
1.2 etc.), while possible ammendments would increase the version number (e.g. 2.0 etc.). Further
ammendments of this standard may introduce new classes and relationships with higher versions, but they
should not deprecate the existing axioms (e.g. no owl:class will be turned out into owl:deprecatedclass
etc.).
7.2.4 Extension mechanisms
The Semantic Web allows any entity to post, reuse and extend OWL ontologies to suit their needs. MVCO
foresees extensions of the ontology, for which the following extension mechanisms are listed:
− Addition of new classes. Subclasses can be created and inherit all the features of the parent class
while allowing refining concepts for more specialised purposes.
− Adding new relations. New object properties can be defined, either at root level or derived from other
object properties.
− Adding new properties. New datatype properties can be defined at will.
− Creating individuals. The extended ontology may define individuals.
Any ontology extending MVCO that is consistent can be said to be MVCO compatible. The built-in MVCO
properties and classes should not be redefined. In general, this means that elements from the mvco
namespace should not appear as subjects of triples (only as objects).
7.2.5 Ontology alignment
Other ontologies may want to map some of their concepts to those in MVCO. Individuals of one ontology may
be mapped to individuals of another, through the use of the construct owl:sameAs, but classes should not be
matched (if classes were matched with owl:sameAs, the ontology would result in a OWL Full).

2) S represents a transitive Base Description Logic (Attributive Language with Complements, (transitive ALC). It
indicates that inverse operators are used in the ontology. F represents the functional attribute of relations (that is
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