Is EIDR an ISO standard?
EIDR is not in and of itself an ISO standard, but it is a member of The DOI Foundation, which is the governance and management body for the federation of Registration Agencies. They provide Digital Object Identifier (DOI) services and registration, and are the registration authority for the ISO standard (ISO 26324). The DOI system provides a technical and social infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers, called DOIs, for use on digital networks. Because EIDR is a member of The DOI Foundation, it is governed by ISO 26324.
Why can’t we just use our internal ID?
You can – for some things. However, nobody works alone and your distribution partners don’t use your IDs. Many of your partners are already EIDR members. EIDR enables automation and drives efficiency, especially when shared between members. EIDR behaves as the Rosetta Stone of media assets. If a content creator registers all of it’s assets with EIDR, they can then share the EIDR ID with all of their distribution partners. The distribution partner can automate, using the EIDR as a definitive way to obtain essential information for the asset’s identification.
Why use an outside entity to get an identifier for my content?
EIDR is not an outside entity, unrelated to the M&E industry. EIDR is an independent non-profit which was established by and is still governed by the major studios and M&E vendors.
The short answer to the question why should you use EIDR, is automation. Nobody works in a vacuum. If you are a content creator or distributor, you are almost certainly working with industry partners. You don’t, however, allow your partners free and open access to your internal systems. EIDR serves as the disinterested third party which keeps records of publicly available title, edit, and manifestation data so that you can automate delivery, distribution, discoverability, and monetization of your licensed and licensable assets.
An EIDR ID links to essential information about media assets, which makes identification and distribution more efficient and allows for automation between separate companies. EIDR is to media assets as ISBN is to books.
I don’t see the terminology I need in EIDR. How can I use EIDR if it doesn’t have what I need?
EIDR terminology was set up to be universal to support as many use cases as possible. We offer support to help you find what you need, register your assets via best practices, and to map to the appropriate terminology in the registry. However, participants are encouraged to request new terminology if a use case truly is not supported by the registry.
Why doesn’t EIDR provide rich metadata?
The metadata collected is intentionally limited to the values needed to de-duplicate records. EIDR is intended to be a registry only, so our bylaws prevent us from competing with members who supply rich metadata as a service. No single metadata provider will be the source of everything for everyone. Think of EIDR as the ISBN of media and entertainment.
Is EIDR expensive?
No – it is inexpensive for most companies, especially if you’re making the most of your membership. EIDR membership is offered with scaled pricing, depending on the annual income of the member company. All paid memberships come with the following benefits:
- Unlimited API Access to register IDs, look up, and edit
- Unlimited ID creation
- Unlimited sharing of EIDR ID and corresponding metadata
- Free training
- Free technical support
- Free integration support
- Inclusion in EIDR working groups
- Unlimited use of EIDR documentation and case studies
- Offline registry copy (1 copy per organization)
- MESA organizational membership (Valued at $7,500/yr)
- Free admission to EIDR events
- Display your company logo on EIDR website
Check out our Pricing page for more information.
Who is the owner of a specific EIDR record? Can I become the owner if I joined after someone else registered my title?
The registry is curated by industry experts who have been vetted to ensure that they are providing high quality data. EIDR does not have the concept of record ownership. However, if your organization is the best source of up-to-date metadata for a record, you can request the role of Metadata Authority. This allows the experts in your organization to maintain the record.
How does EIDR secure confidential information?
EIDR is a public registry. If a record is introduced, it becomes a publicly available record. There is one limited exception. In Development status is used by companies who need an ID, but don’t want the title exposed in the registry just yet. Once the company announces the title to the public, they can change the status to Valid, making it part of the public registry.
If you choose to use the In Development (confidential) status, you will need to be aware that your process is absolutely vital to ensuring your records stay confidential until you are ready for them to be shared. There are at least two important things to remember.
First, if your record is Valid and then changes to In Development, the record was publicly available and there are many organizations that could have seen it or made a copy of it. Once a record is public, it is public, so be careful to only share records which are cleared by your organization. Secondly, In Development records are held so confidentially that they are excluded from the de-duplication system. This means that if someone else knows about the title and registers it, the system will not take the confidential title into account until it’s status is switched to Valid.
Contact EIDR Support if you need information about using the In Development and Valid statuses.
Who can query and search the EIDR registry?
The Registry provides free access to lookup a record using its EIDR. More extensive query and search capability including programmatic interface to the Registry is available at a nominal annual fee. To facilitate widespread adoption of this critical service, EIDR offers very favorable terms of use including the ability to take complete snapshots of the Registry and freely re-use data obtained from the Registry.
Does EIDR track rights?
No. An EIDR is purely functional without any implication of ownership, making it persistent enough to remain the same despite any change in control or ownership of the underlying asset. The metadata associated with an EIDR is functional in nature, serving to identify the asset without aggregating a wider variety of commercially valuable metadata about the asset.
Who runs the EIDR registry?
EIDR has been built and is run by a coalition of leaders in the movie and television industry. It is run by an independent non-profit committed to providing an essential service that benefits the whole industry.