An important project with Pearson and Canon to enable students to print entire paper books on printers at a public library. Unlike traditional local printing, through Aggregion platform copyright holders can control the licensing conditions for each book and the protected content is stored remotely.

Students in the pilot library (LIBFL, Library of Foreign Literature) may select Pearson books from library’s online catalog and in under 10 minutes an industrial Canon printer will print and stitch together the entire book. The whole end-to-end licensing process is managed through the Aggregion platform, which is integrated directly with the Canon printers and with the library’s online catalog. As more copyright holders engage this capability, consumers will have access to a wider selection of books (or any printed materials) and, as more vendors adopt the technology, be able to print them on home printers.

This is a key step in development of the Aggregion IP Flow process, which covers the licensing flow from copyright holders into manufacturing of physical products. Foreseeable next step in development of this technology is to enable 3D printing capabilities for consumers (print licensed blueprints at home) and for businesses (industrial grade printing at factories).

Goals

Problem

Results

  • Copyright holders can control the product licensing conditions (smart contract) on any level of detail, and down to each specific user, printer, and location
  • Unlike traditional local printing, the content is not stored on computers or even the library network: copyright holder retains the content and it is delivered to each printer as required for each licensing iteration
  • Now that the licensing scenario and integration has been set up, it is easy to roll out to additional channels (libraries, schools, workplaces, etc)
  • As part of the Aggregion ecosystem all additional copyright holders will have distribution access to all channels and consumers at all additional channels will have access to catalogs of all copyright holders

Solution