TDMRep: TDM Reservation Protocol

TDMRep is a user-friendly WordPress plugin that lets you control how robots and artificial intelligences (AIs) like ChatGPT and Bard access your content. It integrates with the TDM Reservation Protocol to help you safeguard your copyright and promote innovation.

Control Who Can Access Your Website Content with TDMRep

Think of all the effort you put into creating and organizing the content on your website. You want to share it with the world, but you also want to control who can copy and use your work.

That’s where TDMRep comes in!

How Does TDMRep Work?

Imagine TDMRep as a set of instructions for robots visiting your website. You can tell them exactly what you want them to do with your content, like:

“Read my content, but don’t copy it.” This is useful for search engine robots that analyze your website to understand your content and rank it in search results.

“Read and copy my content, but only for personal use.” This is helpful for students doing research or creators looking for inspiration.

“This content is private! Stay out!” This is useful for sensitive information you don’t want shared publicly.

Why Use TDMRep?

There are two main reasons why TDMRep is important:

• Protect Your Copyright: By controlling access to your content, you prevent people from copying and using your work without permission.
• Fuel Innovation: TDMRep lets responsible robots and AIs access your content in a controlled way. This can help drive research and development of new technologies.

Examples of How Bots Use TDMRep

• Googlebot: This is the robot that crawls websites for Google Search. It uses TDMRep to understand your content and rank your website in search results.
• ChatGPT: This AI can use TDMRep to learn from your content and create new text formats, poems, scripts, and more.
• Bard: Google’s AI can use TDMRep to translate your content, write blog posts, and answer your questions in an informative way.

Who can benefit from TDMRep?

TDMRep can benefit a variety of users, including:

• Website owners: TDMRep lets you control access to your content and protect your copyright.
• Content creators: TDMRep lets you share your content with the world while controlling who can copy and use it.
• Robots and AIs: TDMRep allows robots and AIs to access your content responsibly and use it to develop new technologies.
• Students and researchers: TDMRep allows students and researchers to access your content for their research.
• General public: TDMRep makes it easier for the general public to find information on your website.

Here are some concrete examples:

• A blogger can use TDMRep to allow robots to read their content and index it in search engines, while prohibiting the copying of their content without permission.
• A music publisher can use TDMRep to allow music streaming services to stream their music, while retaining control of the copyright.
• A university can use TDMRep to allow researchers to access its research data, while protecting the privacy of participants.

In short, TDMRep is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to control access to their content and protect their copyright.

TDM Reservation Protocol Techniques

TDMRep integrates 3 of the 4 complementary techniques offered by the TDM Reservation Protocol:

TDM File on the Origin Server (.well-known/tdmrep.json): files, images, pages, posts, sets of urls

The TDM File on the Origin Server technique allows publishers to declare site-wide rights holders’ choices in a machine-readable file hosted on the web server. TDMRep generates this file and provides an interface for publishers to manage their TDM reservation and licensing policies.

TDM Header Field in HTTP Responses (.htaccess): files, images, pages, posts, sets of urls

The TDM Header Field in HTTP Responses technique allows publishers to declare their TDM rights reservation and licensing policies in the HTTP header of the response to a GET or HEAD request. TDMRep integrates this technique by adding the necessary header fields to the HTTP responses generated by WordPress.

TDM Metatags in page, posts or set of urls

TDMRep also supports the use of meta tags to express TDM rights and licensing policies on individual pages and posts, providing a more granular level of control for publishers who want to specify different policies for different parts of their website.

Expressing a TDM Policy

TDMRep plugin allows publishers to express their TDM policies in a machine-readable format using the TDM Policy feature. This feature provides a way for TDM actors to contact content rightsholders and offers details about available TDM licenses, facilitating the acquisition of TDM licenses from rightsholders by TDM actors.

The TDM Policy feature is integrated into the TDMRep plugin and includes the following:

• Assigner
• Permissions

With this feature, publishers can easily express their TDM policies, including the type of permission granted, any constraints on the type of usage, and any duties required of the TDM actor, such as the duty to contact the rightsholder before getting permission or the duty to compensate financially the rightsholder.

1.0.2 – 2024-04-18

• .well-known is generated at website root directory

1.0.1 – 2024-04-18

• Add legal text example

1.0.0 – 2024-04-09

• Initial release

To install the TDMRep plugin, follow these steps:

Through the WordPress plugin repository:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard
2. Navigate to Extensions > Add New
3. Search for “TDMRep: TDM Reservation Protocol for WordPress”
4. Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”

Manually:

1. Download the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
2. Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/tdmrep directory.
3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

Note:

There is no configuration required for the plugin. Access through TDMRep menu on the WP Dashboard.

However, please note the following:

• The user must have administration rights to install and activate the plugin.
• If using the generation by htaccess or .well-known, make sure that these files/directories have write permissions on the server.