Title: The need for a digital rights management framework for the next generation of e-government services

Authors: Habtamu Abie, Bent Foyn, Jon Bing, Bernd Blobel, Peter Pharow, Jaime Delgado, Stamatis Karnouskos, Olli Pitkanen, Dimitrios Tzovaras

Addresses: Norwegian Computing Center, Gaustadalleen 23, PO Box 114 Blindern, N-0314 Oslo, Norway. ' Norwegian Computing Center, Gaustadalleen 23, PO Box 114 Blindern, N-0314 Oslo, Norway. ' Norwegian Research Centre for Computers of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, PO Box 6706, St. Olavs plass, NO-0130 Oslo, Norway. ' Institute for Biometry and Medical Informatics, University of Magdeburg, Leipziger Strasse 44, D-39120 Magdeburg, Germany. ' Institute for Biometry and Medical Informatics, University of Magdeburg, Leipziger Strasse 44, D-39120 Magdeburg, Germany. ' Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Circumval.lacio 8, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain. ' Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, Kaiserin Augusta Allee 31, D-10589 Berlin, Germany. ' Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), PO Box 9800, 02015 HUT, Finland. ' Informatics and Telematics Institute, Centre Reseach and Technology, Hellas, 1st Km Thermi-Panorama Road 57001, PO Box 361, Thermi-Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The amount of government information is huge and relies mostly on traditional systems, inaccessible to citizens and often to government departments. In today|s digital era, most of this content can be more intelligently processed and integrated within e-government. In the world of the future, where ambient intelligence and e-governments are a reality, citizens will interact with the available services in all areas of their lives; a situation that presents new challenges in the area of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Taking into account the nature of the information and the needs of different governmental departments and citizens, any e-government research must give full attention to DRM. In the process towards successful e-government, properly handling privacy, security and trust is an indispensable precondition for reliable legal safeguards, reliable technology and secure business, and for achieving acceptance by citizens. Therefore, we propose to establish a Network of Excellence (NoE) for a framework for policy, privacy, security, trust and risk management for DRM. The NoE will consist of experts from various disciplines and will conduct and guide on-going and future high quality research on e-government related domains.

Keywords: e-government; privacy; security; trust; digital rights management; network of excellence.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2004.004134

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2004 Vol.1 No.1, pp.8 - 28

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article