Electronic Library, The

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the Creative Common license (CC license) a digital copyright license, which can clearly express the scope of copyright granted by the owners and therefore help users, including crawlers and software robots, to comprehend the scope of authority and then collect digital contents via the internet legally. However, both the complex format and difficulty in embedding the digital codes in a binary file impede the spread of CC licenses. This paper seeks to propose a new protocol CCFE, based on the CC license, to solve the above problems.

Design/methodology/approach – Instead of embedding the CC licensing information in the body of a CC file, CCFE attaches the authentication information in the file extension. The syntax of CCFE to verify the validity of CCFE is illustrated.

Findings – CCFE allows the authorization data to be embedded and is consequently preserved in the process of duplication and transmission. Thus the portability of the authentication method is magnified. In addition, users can use general search engines, like Google, to find the CC licensed documents.

Originality/value – The paper points out the disadvantages of the current CC license and explains a new protocol. Furthermore, it explains how this new paradigm can be used for constructing an online digital library and how librarians can use software robots to collect digital contents on the internet within copyright guidelines.