On integration of digital rights management processes preceding content publishing

The methods and technologies providing advantages in controlling and managing intellectual property rights are currently associated under the term Digital Rights Management (DRM). Our study revealed that the issues related to the DRM processes and components of DRM systems have been neglected from the perspective of the upstream of a value chain and the creator-side of a value network. This results in lack of mature solutions for the management of copyrights together with creation of content. Identifying and dividing the processes and components into categories according to the organizational and information system boundaries facilitate the discussion on the relations between processes. The present contribution therefore illustrates relevant components of content management and digital rights management systems for the upstream processes, introduces the processes that components are required to execute, and examines currently neglected integration issues in terms of relations between the components. As a result, we provide a conceptualization of integration needs, and from cases within industrial environment and university community we are able to draw the applicable relations between identified components.