Last fall, the Association of American Publishers' Open eBook Publishing Standards Initiative recommended the adoption of Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) as the primary identification system for electronic books. In response, the International DOI Foundation has established DOI-eBook, a working group that will work with the Software & Information Industry Association to develop prototypes for an e-book DOI.
The prototypes will be used to demonstrate how intellectual property can be managed and copyright protected when everyone in the industry uses a consistent means of identification. David Sidman, founder of Content Directions, a group of consultants on publishing technology, and a leader in the formation of DOI, noted, "The DOI remains with the content and always identifies the original source of that content, even if it is used in another context." This persistence of identification will become increasingly important as authors and publishers use the Web to distribute materials and as a source for new compilations.
