Producers and distributors may have a new weapon in the fight against unauthorized screenings or broadcasts of their works.

isan (International Standard Audiovisual Number), a 16-digit unique identifier used for anti-piracy purposes to track the use of productions and assist collecting societies in the allocation of royalties, is in the works and should be implemented by July 2000.

The isan project got underway in May 1997. It was initiated by the International Association for the Collective Management of Audiovisual Works, the International Confederation of Authors’ and Composers’ Societies and the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations, which formed a working group consisting of 20 members from around the world.

Representing Canada for the cftpa is Stephen Stohn, vp of Epitome Pictures, Toronto.

‘As we progress more and more into the digital world an embedded isan will become an invaluable tool,’ he says. ‘We’ve witnessed its usefulness in books with the isbn [International Standard Book Number].’

The system works on a voluntary identifying number permanently embedded in the original work. isan does not include any codes or descriptive elements and will operate across national boundaries and language barriers.

isan can be used for motion pictures (features or shorts), trailers, productions for television, industrial, educational and training films, commercials, audiovisual recordings of live events such as sports or newscasts, and composite works if they contain an audiovisual component.

For audiovisual works in digital form the isan will be embedded into the master copy and transferred to any subsequent copies made from those masters.

The MPEG 2 digital format already has a 16-digit space held for isan, and according to Stohn the MPEG 4 standard, further down the road, will provide room for sub-numbers so that in addition to identifying the audiovisual work itself, audiovisual works embodied within the work such as music, or a portrait, will be identified as well.

The system will be administered by an international isan agency appointed by the International Organization for Standardization based in Geneva. The international agency, a non-profit organization, will appoint and oversee the work of regional isan agencies, which will receive and process applications and assign numbers.

The main source of funding for isan will come from user fees by the way of a charge to the producer for every number assigned. Stohn says the hope is to keep the cost low as ‘the system works best the more people use it.’

‘Ultimately, it will be very useful for international rights management organizations, who will download the data base and be charged a fee,’ says Stohn. ‘We want to make it easy for producers to use it without a high cost up front and rely on the ultimate payments by users to really finance the system.’

The working group has made its recommendations in the form of a 20-page draft standard which has been sent out to all countries, including those which don’t have representatives in the group. Comments will be submitted and considered at the next meeting of the working group, March 1 at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California.