Metadata is essential to identify and track digital images.
Everyone involved with digital images needs to recognize that embedded metadata is an essential part of every digital image. We feel it is the most efficient means of storing information about an image, and the best way to ensure that users can easily find the image and identify its source after it has been distributed or exchanged.
Therefore, we rely on image creators to responsibly and accurately enter metadata before their image files are disseminated to others. Most critical is the inclusion of ownership information, along with other valuable metadata such as creator contact details, rights information, captions and keywords.
Ownership metadata must never be removed.
We need to institute standards and best practices in order to protect and preserve critical metadata. Information that identifies the copyright holder must be treated as "read only" or "write once" data, and must never removed by image distributors and users. The only exception would be changes done with the explicit consent of the copyright owner.
Automated systems for creating and managing digital files need to honor and assist implementation of this principle. Most critically, these systems need to preserve ownership metadata by default and discourage removal of other metadata by warning users about the legal implications of removal.
Metadata must be written in formats that are understood by all.
Metadata must be written using a format and syntax that is fully consistent with open interoperable standards. Outside of the digital image arena, there are numerous other metadata systems in place. Rather than attempting to unify these systems into one, what is needed is the means for them to communicate with and understand each other.
We need metadata to be able to move seamlessly between different systems and environments. In order for this to work, automated processes need to adhere to open standards or publicly accessible application program interfaces (APIs).
An excellent example of interoperability has been set by the "IPTC4XMP" working group that involved IPTC, Adobe and other industry partners. Together, they developed the IPTC Core schema that includes five fields that are shared with similarly named fields in the Dublin Core schema, a format popular among librarians and web developers.
