The International DOI Foundation (IDF) has announced the appointment of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) as a DOI Registration Agency in Australia.

CAL will use the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) -- a system used for identifying, tracking and communicating on-line digital content -- to facilitate and manage access to a range of digital content.

"We believe DOI will be an essential tool in driving the growth of Australia's digital content industry," commented Mr Michael Fraser, Chief Executive Officer, of CAL. "DOI will offer unparalleled opportunities to anyone interested in accessing digital content. Consumers will be able to directly reach any on-line content, whether it be a newspaper article, book, CD or file, if it has a DOI attached to it. Even if the location of a work changes it will still be accessible because of its unique DOI tag," he said.

"This system is especially exciting for educators and students across Australia as it facilitates access to vital learning materials and will help foster a cutting edge e-learning environment," added Dr Dale Spender, Chair of CAL.

Creators and publishers of digital content will also quickly reap the benefits of DOI. They will be able to offer accurate tracking of their work on-line, meaning a higher degree of security, while at the same time improved access will lead to a growth in e-commerce for high quality original works.

Content aggregators will be able to use DOI to gain quick access to any part of an on-line work they require. This will allow them to create detailed research databases containing a diverse range of content for use by consumers.

As Australia's first DOI registration agency, CAL is keen to ensure that the benefits of the system are widely spread and in the coming months will embark on a campaign of consultation and education across relevant industries.

Norman Paskin, Director of the International DOI Foundation, said: "I would like to welcome CAL as a significant partner in our endeavours. We are particularly pleased to note that CAL intends to apply the system to Australia's educational sector. DOI was designed to offer interoperability of digital content in many forms from multiple sources. Therefore, innovative on-line learning is a perfect application of the system, and complements some of our other activities such as that of the Learning Objects Network. CAL has been a long-time supporter of the Foundation, and has endorsed the work on interoperability of metadata which forms the basis of DOI's approach, and it is particularly pleasing to see this investment now result in practical applications".

DOI Registration Agencies are independent businesses operating under agreement with the International DOI Foundation, which assign DOIs within a community of interest, and ensure that DOI principles and rules are implemented consistently.

Copyright Agency Limited (CAL, http://www.copyright.com.au/) is an Australian copyright management company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users of copyright material. CAL represents authors, journalists, visual artists, photographers and newspaper, magazine and book publishers as their non-exclusive agent to license the copying of works to the general community.

For further information contact:

Mark Hebblewhite, Public Relations Officer, CAL
http://www.copyright.com.au/
mhebblewhite@copyright.com.au
(02) 9394 7684