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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of developments in the USA related to digital rights management (DRM) through legal, technological, and market developments in recent years. Design/methodology/approach - This article summarizes recent developments in DRM in two areas. First is the legal landscape, including copyright law developments that apply to digital content and attempts to impose DRM technology through legislation and litigation. Second are recent advances in DRM-related technology and developments in digital content markets that are based on DRM. In both cases, USA developments are compared with the situation in Europe. Findings - Developments in American copyright law, DRM technology, and digital content markets exert heavy influences on the spread of DRM in Europe, but the legal and technological frameworks are not different, giving rise to incompatibilities. Practical implications - DRM technologies need to evolve differently for European markets, because they need to exist in the context of fundamentally different copyright law frameworks (e.g., Private Copying) and incumbent technologies (e.g., Conditional Access television). Originality/value - European readers of this paper should gain an understanding of American DRM technology and its legal context, and how they influence developments in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an analytical model that shows causal relationships between the amount and nature of information on strategies and the governance of city councils, as well as the contents of different dimensions of sustainability that are disclosed on the websites of local governments in big European cities. This model could reveal if the information is disseminated in a homogeneous and coordinated way and could improve the quality of the information, its coherence and its comparability. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have designed a questionnaire with 75 variables from the Global Reporting Initiative proposal to specify information disclosed on sustainability. The level of information about each of these variables has been gathered by consulting the contents published on the websites of the 142 local governments in the sample. Finally the authors propose a model about the cause-effect relationships between the amount and nature of the information in different dimensions of sustainability on the websites of large cities’ local governments based on the structural equation modelling methodology. Findings – The model obtained reveals that there is coherence in the sustainability information disclosed by large European cities on their websites. However, it is demonstrated that the relations between the amount of information about strategies and the dissemination of information on each of the dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) do not have the same intensity. Originality/value – The proposed model can be useful as a reference framework to structure online information supplied in a balanced and comprehensive way. This conceptual model can suggest ways for sustainable improvements based on the experience of analysed local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the evolution of a new e-research paradigm and to outline key projects and developments in Europe, North America, Canada and Australia. The article also provides a detailed summary of the Dataset Acquisition, Accessibility and Annotation e-Research Technology (DART) project. Design/methodology/approach - A review of relevant government reports, documents and general literature was conducted. Findings - Projects currently being conducted in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia are part of an international movement that aims to use modern ICTs to enhance e-research. The DART project is a significant part of this movement as it has adopted a "whole process" approach to e-research, and provides a platform for the examination of the technical, legal and policy issues that arise in the new e-research environment. Originality/value - Provides an overview of current projects that concern the development of e-research, with a particular focus on Australian research and the DART project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which looks into the applicability of the Web Ontology Language (OWL)-based information submission model. It notes that the information submission model allows the implementation of knowledge-sharing systems including the Set of Experience Knowledge Structure. It claims that the study discovers the presence of the good value compatibility between the normative challenge and the new technology. It also proposes the ontology-based system for banking supervision in Europe.

Purpose - The objective of the present work is to analyse the web pages of the principal European financial entities, with the aim of assessing the degree to which they are already disseminating information by internet in preparation for implementing the new requirements for transparency introduced by the New Capital Agreement of the Bank of International Settlements of Basel (Basel II). Design/methodology/approach - The study takes as its reference the literature existing on the examination of the quality of web pages, in particular the provisions of the Web Quality Model (WQM), and the importance of the content as a key variable in the quality of web pages. The normative requirements are converted into a disclosure index that is used to score the corporate web sites of all the banks quoted on the EuroStoxx Index. A linear regression analysis is performed in search for a relationship between size and degree of web transparency in the financial entities analysed. Findings - The analysis of these entities shows that, to a certain degree, they have anticipated Basel II, and their web pages present a significant proportion of the information that will shortly be required. They seem to recognise the advantages of anticipating these new rules, in particular, and of greater transparency in general. Practical implications - The banking sector is responding efficiently to the requirements of the digital society, by greater transparency on the web and, in consequence, its image and the confidence of depositors are improving. Originality/value - Transparency in the banking sector is a topic of great interest in the current turbulent business environment. In these studies a systematised analysis is offered, to give a preview of the situation of generalised transparency that is coming closer through the requirements of Basel II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]