Aboriginal Archive Uses New DRM

ianare writes "An application that gives fresh new meaning to 'digital rights management' has been pioneered by Aboriginal Australians. It relies on a user's profile to control access to a multimedia archive. The need to create profiles based on a user's name, age, sex and standing within their community comes from traditions over what can and cannot be viewed. For example, men cannot view women's rituals, and people from one community cannot view material from another without first seeking permission. Images of the deceased cannot be viewed by their families. These requirements threw up issues surrounding how the material could be archived, as it was not only about preserving the information into a database in a traditional sense, but also about how people would access it depending on their gender, their relationship to other people, and where they were situated."

Users *want* the rules enforced

[Geof]

That was my reaction, but they call it a "website that's not online". However, from the sounds of it, the users probably don't own the computers, so I would still call it access control.

If it is DRM, itt appears to have a major advantage of most systems: the users want it to enforce its rules.

she noticed that people turned away when certain images came up on screen. . . .

"The way people were looking at the photos was embedded in the social system that already existed in the community," she said.

"People would come in and out of the area of the screen to look when they could look."

Re:Easily hacked?

[networkBoy]

Of course they could. But to draw a parallel, in Aztec society there were no doors. A horizontal bar across the entry way, however, acted as the most secure lock imaginable, because of cultural norms. Basically the same thing here about making a fake account.
-nB

to prevent accidents?

[Reality Master 201]

These kinds of taboos against men and women seeing one another, against talking about the dead, etc. are very common in the aboriginal cultures of Australia, and they take them very seriously. The Warlpiri language, for example, has a sort of sub-language called the avoidance register, used when people of certain familial relations need to talk to each other (a woman and son-in-law, for example) - the grammar's mostly the same, but the words are dramatically simplified, and often replaced with generic terms. And such phenomena occur in other cultural/language groups too - I believe there's something like it in Zulu.

It seems odd to you, but it's also how they want to live. They're free to leave where they live (and many do), and those that stay want to live the traditional way.

MOD PARENT TROLL!

[Anonymous Coward]

links to a malicious site

Re:not your ordinary DRM

[MrKaos]

I know some Koori's, that's how first Australian's (the politically correct term in Australia for Aboriginals) refer to themselves. If you want to see what some of there cultural stories look like check this site out [abc.net.au].

So this is simply a website with user management. Not everybody is allowed to see everything.

Exactly. I think that if there is an off-line aspect to it then either a custom application that only allows those verified to access/download images OR gpg and a ring of trust as a solution more analogous to their actual requirements. I know it can be a bit convoluted, but surely making gpg easier for the Koori elders to use would be a good thing for everyone, even us whitey's!!! The main problem I see is that their culture is not one that uses writing and shares their stories by telling and by viewing them. There is evidence of their culture all around Australia and I have had personal experiences visiting their physical sites, some are quite beautiful (aside from the natural beauty of the surroundings).

I don't know who sold them on the idea of DRM, if the Koori's understood the philosophy from which it came from (i.e. that which tries to own the community - or land - instead of the land - or community - owning it) is being placed in control of their culture, I am certain they would be horrified as this belief is core to their being, male female, boy girl across the many Koori tribal lands. I think whoever has said "DRM' is the answer is not being true to the Koori's they are advising by not understanding this issue. GPG and the GPL is definitely more in line with the traditional cultural ideals that I know of.

Now the only question is how to make gpg easy for a visually oriented culture to use, especially the elders, which in this case will drive adoption.

One other thing, I think there is a bit of a thin edge of the wedge going on here, as in the advocates of DRM trying to find a cultural fit as a justification to use DRM somewhere, to force adoption by the wider community.

Re:once again

[sg_oneill]

"Jingoism and bigotry posing as rational smug superiority. Nothing more."

I'd say ignorance even.

The reason why this is important, is due to the critical need for anthropologists to win the trust of many of these ancient tribes to study the practices so we can learn a bit more about how hunter gatherer societies organise. Back in the earlier days of Anthropologists studying Aboriginal tribes, the Aboriginals, knowing "whitefulla" had no real ability to use the dances and rituals in the "magical" way Aboriginal religions see them, they freely cooperated and would show the rituals etc. However a series of incidents, where the rituals where shown on TV and then seen by neighboring tribes, thus unleashing "curses" or whatever, led to most of these tribes stopping from trusting anthropologists to respect the conditions of the cooperation. This particularly occurs with gender specific rituals. "womens business" rituals are not to be seen by men (white men included), and unless the anthropologist can guarantee this, she won't be shown the ritual. But oftentimes she cant, and so anthropology never gets to study it.

Systems like this, where the community gets to decide the 'rules' of accessing the multimedia (a bit like creative commons even) means that the Anthropologist can finally win the trust of the tribe to do the studies needed to piece together the mysteries of traditional Aboriginal life.

Re:not your ordinary DRM

[downundarob]

I know some Koori's, that's how first Australian's (the politically correct term in Australia for Aboriginals) refer to themselves.

Actually the Aboriginal people of the area known as New South Wales call themselves Koori, the people of Queensland call themselves Murri, the South Australian's are Nunga, WA far west (around Perth) are Nunya, whilst in the Top End (Darwin Region) there are Larrakia, Tiwi, Mirar and Yolgnu, People of Central Australia call themselves Arrente, Marla etc. Whereas I am a Balanda (in the local language).

Re:Images of deceased persons

[fabs64]

It's for images of aboriginal/torres strait islanders who have died since the image was made.

Re:Given your comment, I'm wondering...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the taboo is simply VIEWING. There's no way to "un-view" something, so they need a warning so that they can know to avoid breaking their tribes' customs. They aren't demanding that it be censored everywhere and everywhen, simply that they don't see it. I don't see why it's such a problem for you; you don't seem to be interested in Aboriginal customs, and if you were, you could simply lie about your details to get all the content. Fun Fact: Most (if not all) Australian shows with Aboriginals in it have disclaimers at the beginning ("May contain images or depictions of deceased relatives).

already done

[A3gis]

The company I work for developed a web based knowledge repository like this back in 2001 for Galiwinku in the Northern Territory. Unfortunately the project derailed, I'm not sure why (being only a lowly developer and all), but was probably due to funding reconsiderations or somesuch. We had a working system which covered the different groups, sexes, groups within the sexes, age, location, and a few other things I can't recall now and can't check back up on because the development site is all written in the Yolgnu language. It was an amazing amount of data to work with though, and one thing I didnt see mentioned yet, is that it isn't JUST about limiting who has access to what, it also defines what aspect you are presented with regarding a given item - eg: a given plant may have one story attached to it in relation to a women's group from wherever, but a totally different one for male elders elsewhere. So it's not just about keeping people out, it's as much to ensure individuals receive the right information for their affiliations complex as they may be. Most painful access level components I've ever worked on.. ever..