IT and Law: ISTCs approved in Russia

A non-commercial partnership of rightholders and users “Intellectual Rights Federation” has been officially appointed as an authorized registration agency for allocation of international ISTCs on the territory of the Russian Federation, thus Russia has entered the list of five leading countries registering ISTC.

By bringing together participants of library, publishing and copyright market into one system and establishing an International copyright register it will become possible to solve a complex of urgent tasks and questions arising in these areas.

Now the Intellectual Rights Federation (FIPR) is entering a new innovative stage. The International ISTC (International Standard Text Code) Agency, the official Registration Authority for the International Standard Text Code (ISTC), announced the appointment of the Intellectual Rights Federation, as the fifth official ISTC registration agency. This means that it is now authorized to assign ISTCs to textual works on behalf of authors, publishers and other content owners or representatives on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Following ISBN (International Standard Book Number) the ISTC is an approved ISO standard providing a means of uniquely identifying textual works (their parts) in information systems, and identify their rightholders. It facilitates the enhancement of discovery tools, enabling them to identify and group together publications of the same textual content. The ISTC also facilitates exchange of information about such works between publishers, authors and authors associations, collective management organizations, libraries, search engines and others within the country and on an international level, and also helps to exercise control over the use of text content in commercial purposes.

Introduction of this standard will enable to enhance and streamline the use of e-texts by users, and provide the industry with a standardized format for keeping records and exercising control over the use of e-content.

FIPR is the only one registration agency of the whole content in the Russian language, and thus it makes a great contribution to the development and modernization of Russia and makes it possible for it in this respect to enter the international stage.

As for now among countries-participants, official ISTC registration agencies, are the USA, the UK, Germany and France. Russia has become the fifth country, which can officially register ISTCs, what will undoubtedly improve its status in the area of intellectual rights management, control over their use, and help to enhance and implement many legislative initiatives in the area of copyright.

The International ISTC agency (International Standard Text Code) is a not-for-profit company appointed by the International Standards Organisation ISO as global authority responsible for the promotion, coordination and supervision of International Standard Text Code (ISTC) standard and system.