Objectives and Project Structure

Purpose of the IMR Project

The IMR project has three fundamental objectives. It seeks to :

  1. Gain agreement on the basic principles that form the foundation of the system at a conceptual level, in order to arrive at a shared understanding of what the system should do and for whom.
  2. Create globally balanced discussions within each major sector of the music industry, from licensees to licensors, on the features that each group of stakeholders needs from the system.
  3. Create a detailed system design, based on those features that can enable the system to be built.

Ensuring global industry input and buy-in

Throughout, global communities will be encouraged to discuss and influence IMR project developments, in particular as milestones are reached, such as:

  1. The preparation of a solid draft of the Basic Principles, for broad input
  2. Draft terms of reference for sectoral feature teams
  3. Nominations of individuals to the feature teams
  4. Draft system features produced by the feature teams

Proposals for governance and financial models will be developed by the IMR Consultative Committee, following the best advice available on multi-stakeholder governance systems. Those proposals will be subject to consultation throughout worldwide stakeholder communities. Requirement gathering and technical work will take place in Sector Feature Teams (see the table below).

The process is designed to build and maintain trust and will incorporate measures to ensure a wide participation in the ultimate system. The system's features will be designed to serve a wide range of stakeholders throughout the world.
 

 

Characteristic Strategic Discussions -"Consultative Committee" Features and Services Design -"Sector Feature Teams"
Start Date November 2010 (actual) April 2011 (proposed)
Objective of Discussions Initial Stage: Gain agreement on:
  1. The necessity of an international rights management system;
     
  2. The high-level characteristics of that system;
     
  3. The need for the system to ensure equal market access for all countries;
     
  4. The 'organizational home' and operator of the system

    Second Stage:
     
  5. Participants discuss within their sector the results of the Initial Stage and communicate them to the wider group.
     
  6. Group discusses these issues, and agrees on second-level characteristics under each high-level category.
     
  7. Draft principles are communicated publicly to the broader community for comment; comments are reviewed, and where necessary changes made to the text.
     
 Sectoral discussions to agree on and prioritize:
  1. The features and services necessary for the system to be considered a success (requirement gathering)
     
  2. Features and services that would be useful
     
  3. Coordination between sectors in order to ensure that features vital to a particular sector receive the necessary input from other sectors, requiring clear global understanding of the various sectors' needs and a mechanism for sharing data.
Characteristics of participants Initial Stage:
  • Senior figures from the main sector of each music right holder community.
     
  • Each acts in a personal capacity, highlighting potential issues and objections at each stage.
     
  • Participants chosen must work well with others and have a good knowledge of international commercial operations in their sector.
     
  • Discussions are meant to focus on solving commercial problems, rather than debating policy issues.  Participants should therefore have a commercial background in their sector.
     
  • It would be helpful if participants had some experience with digital licensing / products in their sector.
     
  • As far as possible, participants have an understanding of commercial operations that is regionally balanced. International NGO participatants, would be considered as multi-regional where the organization they represent has members in more than one region.

    Second Stage:
    As above, but with the addition of:
     
  • Multi-territory digital music services, to ensure participants agree overall with the framework right holders have requested.
     
  • Legal advisors or participants representing specialist services that could identify and resolve secondary concerns arising from the initial stage, if required.
     
 Participants should:
  • Possess strong knowledge of commercial operations in their sector, and their region.
     
  • Be able to communicate the commercial needs of their respective organizations.
     
  • Gather input on feature requests from different sized-organizations in each sector and from different geographical regions.
     
  • Include right holders as well as licensees, to ensure the system responds to the needs of both groups.
     
  • Understand the interrelationships between their own sector and others.


     
Timeline Initial Stage: November 2010 - January 2011
Second Stage: February 2011 - April 2011		 Initial Stage: Meetings can begin as soon as second-stage characteristics are agreed in the strategic discussions.
Number of participants Not more than 25, excluding support staff. As required, keeping in mind that each sector meets separately to develop its feature needs and request lists.
Mechanisms for meeting Initial Stage: One initial face-to-face meeting, followed by telephone conferences as needed, and a second face-to-face meeting, if required. If possible, meetings will be supported by audiovisual remote participation via WebEx or similar technologies.
Second stage: An initial face-to-face meeting, followed by telephone conferences as required, and an additional face-to-face meeting if necessary.		 As determined by each sector.  It is anticipated that most meetings in each sector will take place electronically.

 

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