Dear all,

I will try to succinctly state my ideas on the matter. In terms of the last 
question:

> 
> Either 
> 
> (a)  A Right _is_ a legal privilege, and thus it can stop existing when the 
> legal privilege that it models no longer exists (counter to the conceptual 
> object argument)
> Or
> 
> (b) A Right is the concept _of_ a legal privilege, and thus it can be one 
> that is not justified by law, such as the most basic case of the necessary 
> existence of the Right after the sale of the object by the holder of the 
> Right.
> 
> It cannot be both.  Which is it?
> 

If the dilemma derives from my previous post, it’s not exactly what I meant to 
imply. A right IsA Conceptual Object in the CRM sense that it is a product of 
the mind and fits in the class hierarchy of such real world objects and should 
be consistent to the modelling thereof. The beginning of existence of a 
conceptual object relates to its being formulated as a thought and probably 
somewhere documented. As a well established principle of CRM, instances o 
conceptual object to not cease to exist until there is no more knowledge of 
them. 

Therefore, I would argue that the begin condition of a legal right should be 
specified in the scope note of E30 to make clearer when it begins and to 
specifically indicate that this is not when the right comes into force (be 
extension not when it goes out of force), but rather when the right is 
formulated. It may be the case that in the scope note which we should enrich, 
the specific conditions of such a formulation of a right should be further 
refined in order to detail under what conditions the specific subclass of 
Conceptual Object that is Right can be said to come into existence. The 
formulation might speak of how such a begin is not only thinking abstractly of 
having the right over the Mona Lisa but rather must be asserted as an idea 
within an known legal framework or according to an established principle or 
some such under which the Actor in question could conceivably claim/assert this 
right. 

I did not intend to say with my remarks that a Right is _merely_ the idea or 
concept of a right (although I can see how it might have read that way). 
Rather, I meant to say that because a right has been formulated/claimed (in the 
restricted sense I mention above) it may have come into existence and yet not 
be in force (meeting the conditions above of ‘being thought about’ and ‘being 
formulated by an actor who acts within some known legal framework or principle 
whereby they can reasonably be assumed to assert such claim). Likewise, once it 
has gone out of force, I would think that the instance of E30 Right has not 
ceased to exist but is merely our of force (we did not lose our knowledge about 
it which I believe is what we would intend if we said that it had ended to 
exist… there are no more carriers). 

Quoting from E28 scope:

"They (ALL instances of E28 including instances of its subclasses -G.B.) cannot 
be destroyed. They exist as long as they can be found on at least one carrier 
or in at least one human memory. Their existence ends when the last carrier and 
the last memory are lost."

So, my intended point was that the begin and end conditions of right are not 
when it is valid/in force but something else. 

With regards to Rob's proposal on typing then:


>    I agree with George that a new property to assert that the [notion of the] 
> Right applies over a particular timespan would be the easiest solution.  Then 
> has_type can be used to distinguish between actually legal Rights, and ones 
> that are not legally valid or binding.  This would also make the sale of 
> stolen objects significantly easier to model – it is the creation of a Right, 
> with a has_type for its illegal status, that applies during the period until 
> the item is discovered to have been stolen.


I don’t think it is necessary. The class, I think, really should pick out just 
those instances in the world of conceptual object that are specifically real 
‘legal privileges concerning material and immaterial thing or their 
derivatives’. Of course these could be contested. That would be another good 
use of node (to document some argument for example that it is not valid, as 
per, I think, Steve’s suggestion).

The overall issue should be clarified, in my opinion, by a more robust scope 
note that specifies the identity, unity, begin and end conditions of existence 
of instances of E30 Right. 

With regards to the subsequent modelling question of:

>> 
>>    In terms of activities, I don’t think that quite fits, even with the 
>> problematic-in-RDF P16.1.  I could assert that Stephen possesses the 
>> reproduction rights for the Mona Lisa … that doesn’t imply that Stephen 
>> carried out any activity.


I think that this raises an additional question of the scope note of E7. The 
scope note of E7 Activity and its label suggest ‘action’ to many users of the 
CRM:

'This class comprises actions intentionally carried out by instances of E39 
Actor that result in changes of state in the cultural, social, or physical 
systems documented. This notion includes complex, composite and long-lasting 
actions such as the building of a settlement or a war, as well as simple, 
short-lived actions such as the opening of a door’

Yet the scope note also indicates, and it is fundamental to many CMR based 
models, that we are not speaking of some constantly on-going act. The 
Peloponnesian War lasted 30+ years but there were intervals in which it was not 
‘happening' at all. It would still be an instance of E7 to my understanding. 

What an instance of E7 does necessarily imply to my reading, is some conscious 
intention towards something (that can be perceived by 3rd parties and therefore 
documented). So, to my mind, so long as this is the case with the data under 
discussion (people aren’t taking up rights unbeknownst to themselves), then the 
E7 used specific object proposal that Steve proposes would function. In fact, 
in this case, where it seems that the issue under investigation is indeed 
active participation in arts dealing (if I understood correctly) and who 
actively used what and in what amount, it seems quite appropriate. 

The whole thing does raise the issue of whether we make this potential 
passivity of an instance of E7 action more clear in the scope note. 

As to Rob’s seconding of my proposal for ‘validity time’ relations on E30:

>>  I agree with George that a new property to assert that the [notion of the] 
>> Right applies over a particular timespan would be the easiest solution.


Thanks for the seconding. It is true as Steve remarks that we should have use 
cases or there is no point to model it, but I think there are such use cases 
and that it would be worth discussing at a SIG. I think the semantics would be 
different that the 'E7 used object' modelling, since something can be  in force 
and not used (see Greek anti smoking law). This seems to turn toward the 
questions that were being raised in the last SIG about modelling ‘planned 
activities’ in relation to E29 Design or Procedures, I believe and could be 
raised in relation to this?

Finally, with regards to the implementation issue and the .1s in RDF, do you or 
have you tried to use the CRMpc solution? 

Sorry for the length and hope it was a useful contribution to the conversation.

Best,

George

> Rob
> 
> On 8/20/17, 6:46 AM, "Stephen Stead" <ste...@paveprime.com> wrote:
> 
>    Robert 
>    I am unclear how your thought experiment of "conceiving" of a right fits 
> into the definition of an instance of E30 Right as a "legal privilege". Is 
> your experiment is to consider what we might do about contested knowledge 
> about instances of E30 Right; to consider fraudulent instances of rights that 
> might be represented in knowledge systems as instances of E30 Right or as the 
> basis of defining a new class or classes? If the later do you have any 
> examples from documentation systems that we could draw on?
> 
>    To aid my understanding of your sample snippets could you include the 
> Class and Property identifiers. The sample for the lament cloth (from the 
> website) is very clear, if a little more verbose, but would make your 
> examples easier to follow for me.
> 
>    Your assertion that an instance of E39 Actor P105R has right on E22 Man 
> Made Object implies that you believe that instance of E39 Actor did perform 
> the activity of holding the right and this can then be represented with an 
> instance of E7 Activity. The case of you believing this statement to be 
> untrue is dealt with using CRMinf.
>    Rgds
>    SdS
> 
>    PS Representing this in RDF is an implementation issue not a modelling one 
> and the SIG has given guidance on possible Open and Closed World resolutions 
> to the problem.
> 
>    Stephen Stead
>    Tel +44 20 8668 3075 
>    Mob +44 7802 755 013
>    E-mail ste...@paveprime.com
>    LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/steads/
> 
>    -----Original Message-----
>    From: Robert Sanderson [mailto:rsander...@getty.edu] 
>    Sent: 15 August 2017 17:23
>    To: ste...@paveprime.com; 'George Bruseker' <bruse...@ics.forth.gr>
>    Cc: 'crm-sig' <crm-sig@ics.forth.gr>; David Newbury <dnewb...@getty.edu>
>    Subject: Re: [Crm-sig] End of Existence for Rights?
> 
> 
>    Dear Stephen, George, all,
> 
>    To make sure that we’re on the same page, if Rights are to be treated as 
> concepts rather than the legal application of the concept, then I can 
> conceive of the Right that I personally own Van Gogh’s “Irises”.  Not even 
> that I am claiming to own the painting, just the notion of a theoretical 
> ownership. I can write that down on a piece of paper and sneak it into our 
> archive, ensuring that there is at least one carrier of this Right.  Thus, I 
> could legitimately assert the existence of a Right, which applies to Irises 
> and is possessed by me … correct?   And the creation of the idea is unrelated 
> to the claimed period over which the rights are asserted to be possessed – I 
> can conceive of my ownership lasting precisely 15 minutes, in the future. So 
> the utility of “Right” as a class is very limited – it has nothing to do with 
> the actual legal right of ownership (despite the scope note), it is instead 
> an idea of ownership that makes no claim about reality.
> 
>    If this is a correct understanding, it would be good to update the scope 
> notes for E30 to clarify that it’s not the actual legal privileges in any 
> meaningful sense.
> 
> 
>    The full extent of what we’re trying to capture is the situation where 
> different parties have (legally or just by agreement between them) hold 
> different shares in the object.  For example, a partial gift to a museum, 
> where the value transfers over time from the donor to the museum (for tax 
> reasons, one imagines), or for situations where art dealers collaborate to 
> purchase an object, and then share the profits of sale in the same 
> proportions (a good example of distinct ownership versus physical custody!).
> 
>    In order to capture the proportion of ownership as a Dimension, we were 
> very happy that has_dimension has a domain of Thing … and thus can be used 
> with Conceptual Object and Right.  Right can be partitioned with has 
> component from E89.  Thus:
> 
>    _:r1 a Right ;
>      applies_to <painting> ;
>      possessed_by <group> ;
>      has_component [ 
>          a Right ;
>          has_dimension [
>              a Dimension ;
>              has_value 70 ;
>              has_unit <percentage> ] ;
>          possessed_by <member1> ] ,    
>        [
>          a Right ;
>          has_dimension [
>               a Dimension ;
>               has_value 30 ;
>               has_unit <percentage> ;
>          possessed_by <member2> ] .
> 
>    <group> a Group ;
>          has_current_or_former_member <member1>, <member2> .  
> 
>    Thus, to avoid the transfer of a Right (which cannot be modeled, per 
> previous discussions), we create and destroy hierarchical Rights similar to 
> the example above.
> 

>    I agree with George that a new property to assert that the [notion of the] 
> Right applies over a particular timespan would be the easiest solution.  Then 
> has_type can be used to distinguish between actually legal Rights, and ones 
> that are not legally valid or binding.  This would also make the sale of 
> stolen objects significantly easier to model – it is the creation of a Right, 
> with a has_type for its illegal status, that applies during the period until 
> the item is discovered to have been stolen.
> 
>    In terms of activities, I don’t think that quite fits, even with the 
> problematic-in-RDF P16.1.  I could assert that Stephen possesses the 
> reproduction rights for the Mona Lisa … that doesn’t imply that Stephen 
> carried out any activity.
> 
>    Rob
> 
> 
>    On 8/15/17, 4:42 AM, "Stephen Stead" <ste...@paveprime.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>        Dear Rob, George and all,
>        George is absolutely correct that the right is the conceptual object 
> of the right itself regardless of whether it is current or not. I do not 
> agree that we need some new link from the right to time. The simple construct 
> is to use an E7 Activity that uses a specific object (P16) (The right) and 
> has a participant Actor in a specific role. If the right is on another object 
> then that object is also a used specific object  (remember P16.1 mode of use 
> is also available). I think this covers the scenarios that Rob is trying to 
> deal with but would be very interested to see if there are other problem 
> situations.
>        TTFN
>        SdS
> 
>        Stephen Stead
>        Tel +44 20 8668 3075 
>        Mob +44 7802 755 013
>        E-mail ste...@paveprime.com
>        LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/steads/
> 
>        -----Original Message-----
>        From: Crm-sig [mailto:crm-sig-boun...@ics.forth.gr] On Behalf Of 
> George Bruseker
>        Sent: 15 August 2017 09:08
>        To: Robert Sanderson <rsander...@getty.edu>
>        Cc: crm-sig (Crm-sig@ics.forth.gr) <Crm-sig@ics.forth.gr>
>        Subject: Re: [Crm-sig] End of Existence for Rights?
> 
>        Dear Rob et al.,
> 
>        I would say that the modelling of conceptual object and its begin/end 
> relation is correct also in this instance. It is not the existence of the 
> right qua concept that terminates when the right over something expires. I 
> would argue that the right can exist before it comes into validity or goes 
> out of it. A right qua power over x lasts as long as its validity. We seem to 
> have an equivocation of what we want to invoke by this class, the right qua 
> concept or qua power over. Might want to think more about the scope note. But 
> modelling wise, I think it might be addressed by having a new property for 
> validity period which would define the limits of the right qua power and be 
> distinct from its existence. 
> 
>        As an example to support my case, I would say that Michael Jackson’s 
> Right over the Beatles Catalogue from 1985-2006 continues to exist qua 
> conceptual object to this very moment (there are many carriers of this idea 
> and we are referring to it now), but its validity period has definitely 
> expired and is more or less known. 
> 
>        Other ideas?
> 
>        Best,
> 
>        George
> 
> 
>> On Aug 15, 2017, at 12:44 AM, Robert Sanderson <rsander...@getty.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> We are looking to express a Right that applies to an Object, such as 
>> Ownership. As the Right only applies for a limited duration, we had though 
>> to create the Right as part of the Acquisition of the Object and then to 
>> have it be taken out of existence by the subsequent Acquisition.  Thus the 
>> Right, which as previously discussed is specific to the people and objects 
>> involved, would only be documented as existing when the specific people 
>> actually own the Object.  
>> 
>> However, Rights are Conceptual Objects, which state in their scope notes:
>> 
>>> They [Conceptual Objects] cannot be destroyed. They exist as long as they 
>>> can be found on at least one carrier or in at least one human memory. Their 
>>> existence ends when the last carrier and the last memory are lost
>> 
>> So although Rights are Persistent Items and can thus have an End of 
>> Existence, the scope note for Conceptual Object clarifies that they only 
>> actually have an End of Existence when there is no memory of them. This 
>> means for all practical purposes that it can never be used, as if there is 
>> no memory of it, then there could be no description in CRM of it.
>> 
>> This means that we cannot ascribe an end to the Right without ignoring the 
>> scope notes for Conceptual Object? Or is there another method to provide 
>> time-limited scope to the application of the legal privileges that the E30 
>> embodies?
>> 
>> Many thanks,
>> 
>> Rob
>> 
>> 
>> 
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