The Digital Object Identifier (DOI®) System is for identifying content objects in the digital environment. DOI® names are assigned to any entity for use on digital networks. They are used to provide current information, including where they (or information about them) can be found on the Internet. Information about a digital object may change over time, including where to find it, but its DOI name will not change.

The DOI System provides a framework for persistent identification, managing intellectual content, managing metadata, linking customers with content suppliers, facilitating electronic commerce, and enabling automated management of media. DOI names can be used for any form of management of any data, whether commercial or non-commercial.

via The Digital Object Identifier System.

This is the “ET call home” part of John Perry Barlow‘s description of information and how it will managed so creators can get paid when it is appropriate. If you haven’t read his “Selling Wine Without Bottles on the Global Net” piece on the economy of ideas, do so now. Then you will see how the Dublin open media standards are bringing that on. Basically, he says why not just tag information units, from stories to pictures — any digital info unit — with embedded I.D. stuff about who created it, what it is, who can use it and under what circumstances. Then the piece of information would “call home” whenever it was used, installed, remixed, quoted, etc. It could even have a “self-destruct” function to thwart the free riders who would try and take content that the author did not license as free and reuse it without paying. He collected these thoughts together originally in 1992-3

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