Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM)
Release to Invite Industry Contributions
Does PRAM intend to “endorse” a specific addressability solution or solutions, and if so what are their criteria?
The Partnership’s role is not to “endorse” or “bless” a specific addressability vendor solution or solutions. Rather, it’s to facilitate industry collaboration towards the development of technical standards, policies and accountability programs that enable “privacy by default” addressable advertising and measurement business activities. We will endorse the set of standards and programs that enable interoperable, responsible and compliant use of consumer data and identifiers, and call upon all industry participants to support our work by only using vendor solutions that meet those standards. A technology and policy compliance program is expected to accompany standards, to provide confidence to the industry that specific solutions meet clear criteria.
What are the conditions for a company to propose/submit contributions for evaluation?
Collaborative solution development (often but not necessarily within an open-source licensing model) is important as a baseline foundation to fuel market innovation and competition, enabling proprietary vendor solutions to build on that foundation where appropriate and develop distinct value for the industry. We will accept proprietary technology submissions for review so long as the explicit proposal is to assign ownership of the technology to the industry for neutral collaboration and solution development of industry standards for addressability and accountability. We will then evaluate any proposed technology contribution against the Partnership’s core principles, industry use cases impacts, interoperability, policy perspectives, technical feasibility, and its ability to aid in proprietary innovation.
What does it mean that companies must “assign code” and why must companies agree to this? Why is “open-source” important?
Open-source software entails source code being made available by the original developer to a much larger audience, generally anyone who is interested, to study, change, modify, enhance and distribute. On the other hand, proprietary software has source code that can only be edited, inspected, changed or enhanced by the person, team, or organization that created it. Open-source solution development is important to industry collaboration, establishing open standards, and enabling faster development and improved interoperability of proprietary solutions. Assignment of ownership establishes the “title” and licensing terms that allow for all industry participants to benefit from a shared codebase with clear legal guidelines.
By assigning the code to PRAM or its representative (i.e., Tech Lab), are companies surrendering their ownership and/or commercial rights to distribute or monetize their solution?
Assigning specific code to PRAM (specifically IAB Tech Lab as the tech standards organization for PRAM) means that the assigner is relinquishing their proprietary ownership rights for that code so that a broader set of participants may study, change, modify, enhance and distribute the code within either a proprietary license (in the event of commercial use) or an open-source license (such as an industry utility or tech standard). Assigners, like any other company, may continue to develop, distribute and monetize proprietary solutions that utilize that code.
Can a company with a proprietary addressability solution convert it to open source to take part in this effort?
Yes, while software developed within any given company is generally proprietary by default, the process of contribution and assignment (if accepted by PRAM) changes the license terms for that software to make it available to benefit the broader industry.
Will companies be able to undergo a PRAM review/certification process for their solutions at some point in future, even if they don’t contribute their code (or if it isn’t open source)?
Yes, PRAM is working towards the development of technical standards, policies and accountability programs that define a minimum bar for “privacy by default” addressable advertising and measurement business activities, and interoperable, responsible and compliant use of consumer data and identifiers. We will call upon industry participants to support this work by only using vendor solutions that demonstrate ongoing compliance with those standards and accountability programs.
Doesn’t “open source” mean free of charge? If so, how would a vendor monetize their solution? What incentivizes them to contribute code if they can’t make any money from it?
Much like tech standards, open-source solutions provide a baseline of functionality and interoperability that facilitates proprietary innovation and competition, and therefore market growth. While open-source solutions are generally free of charge, they allow participants to develop and offer proprietary solutions to market much faster, by providing a baseline of functionality and interoperability to build commercial solutions on top of — which companies can charge for. There are many examples for this historically, including HTTP (the Web), Bluetooth, WiFi, Prebid, and OpenRTB — just consider the magnitude of commercial activity these open source solutions and standards have fostered!
How do companies and their software developers collaborate on code that is contributed to PRAM?
PRAM leadership will first evaluate any proposed technology contribution against the Partnership’s core principles, industry use cases impacts, interoperability, policy perspectives, technical feasibility, and its ability to aid in proprietary innovation. The next step is to gather feedback from the industry’s technical community through the PRAM Technical Working Group (run by IAB Tech Lab within its Rearc working groups), and determine the key components of industry collaboration — including infrastructure, processes, technical oversight, licensing model, etc.
If you have more questions, please reach out to rearc@dev.iabtechlab.com