Reprinted from the DOI^® Handbook, Version 4.4.1, Chapter 7, Section 7.13 The International DOI Foundation.

The activities of the Foundation are controlled by its members, operating under a legal Charter and formal By-laws. Membership is open to all organizations with an interest in electronic publishing, content distribution, rights management, and related enabling technologies. We also welcome comments and participation from non-members. The Foundation develops and establishes policies and procedures and oversees the successful operation of the system. IDF has a membership of committed companies and organizations that participate in the development of the system and its applications and welcome a broader community of organizations, which, by nature of their business or market, have a potential interest.

Through their dues, Members support the Foundation, and hence the high-quality operation of the DOI^® System, which will be integral to furthering the interests of the Foundation's members. Membership in the International DOI foundation (IDF) is open to all organizations with an interest in electronic publishing and its related enabling technologies. Members may be either for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. For a list of current members see http://www.doi.org/idf-member-list.html.

Participating in an international effort to standardize Internet-related technology is perhaps one of the most important steps that can be taken by any organization which uses the digital environment to deliver content. Rather than rely on other organizations to develop the standards that your organization must deal with, participation offers the opportunity to be involved, to shape, influence and assist in making new technology and information standards serve the needs of your organization.

Content must be managed in the digital world; the current tools are insufficient. Doing nothing is not an option. There is clear demand from the market to present content accessibly and digitally. The content community must take the lead or technology companies will fill the vacuum, or will ignore or downplay the rights and intellectual property aspects. No other forum does what the International DOI Foundation does.

Why collaborate? To inter-operate with others outside your business; supply chain, customers, and competitors that are adopting the key standards designed for inter-operability. Collaborating through the International DOI Foundation will reduce costs and prevent mistakes and dead-ends when trying to advance as a single company. In our working groups you have the opportunity to take account of intelligent reviews of others' activities. We provide a common platform, and offer you the opportunity to build added-value services that ensure wider usage if designed to support your interests. We allow you to influence the course of our activities; participate in working groups, meetings, prototypes, stand for election and lobby board members.

The cost of membership for an organization is low (equal to 2-3 days per month of a consultant), but you benefit immediately as well as for the long term. Members can suggest work in their area of interest and costs don't fall only on you. We provide monthly briefings on other activities, which you cannot afford to attend or monitor in detail (WIPO, W3C, IETF, MPEG, ISO, OeBF, SIIA, and others). You will be involved in a comprehensive effort that will expand your markets; international participation from the US, Asia, Europe and from multimedia industries, e.g., text, music, software, broadcast, images and news.

The more you participate in our forums and tap into our resources, the more you learn how to exploit and control content to ensure flexibility to do business amidst the changing winds of technology. By joining the International DOI Foundation you will soon recognize why participation in developing the DOI System is the prerequisite to digital trading, selling and protection of intellectual property.

On joining the IDF, a free DOI prefix will be available for experimental purposes should you require it. Please contact the IDF at contact@doi.org to request this. the number of DOI names allocated with the experimental prefix will be subject to review and may be limited at the discretion of the IDF. If further DOI prefixes are required for non-experimental purposes, you should work with one of our Registration Agencies. Registration Agencies are established to provide services on behalf of specific user communities. For further information on RAs, please see Chapter 8 and the Registration Agencies page on the DOI.ORG website.

Members may be either for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. Membership is normally not open to individuals, but the Board reserves the right to allow this in exceptional cases.

There are four classes of membership: General, Charter, Registration Agency, and Affiliate. Charter, General and RA Members are entitled to vote in annual IDF elections within their own category of membership (Affiliate members do not have voting rights.)

All IDF members can participate in IDF working groups; Affiliate membership allows participation in one Working Group only and this must be by invitation of the Working Group chair.

• General Membership is offered to any organizations with an interest in electronic publishing and its related enabling technologies who wish to support the development of the DOI System but are not active Registration Agencies.

• Charter Membership, initially established for founding IDF organisations, is only offered to organizations whose main activities are in the creation or production and dissemination of intellectual property. The Board of the IDF reserves the right to determine eligibility for the Charter membership category and may in particular refuse eligibility or exclude a member for any reason in the interest of the goals of the Foundation.

• Registration Agency membership is only available to organizations, which have signed a formal Registration Agency Agreement with the IDF. The primary (and minimum) role of Registration Agencies is to provide services and applications to Registrants -- allocating DOI prefixes, registering DOI names and providing the necessary infrastructure to allow Registrants to declare and maintain metadata and state data.

• Affiliate Membership is restricted to professional associations who have one or more of their current members in current membership of the IDF. Organisations outside this scope may be invited or admitted at the Board's sole discretion. Affiliate membership does not carry voting rights, and Affiliate members are not eligible for Board membership. Registration Agencies are not eligible for this category of membership.

The benefits of membership participation flow downward to subsidiaries of members as follows:

• For organizations which themselves have member organizations, the immediate direct benefits of membership as defined in the Rules for Members (such as eligibility to vote, participate in meetings and access to the member-only Web site) only extend to the staff and officers of those organizations, and do not flow through to their own members (who may decide to join the IDF under their own auspices).

• In the case of government agencies and departments, or educational institutions, this is interpreted to include sub-agencies, departments, laboratories, etc. When a subsidiary takes advantage of this provision, participation in IDF activities must be co-ordinated through the Member's IDF representative. Participants so authorized will officially represent the Member organization. The subsidiary may not indicate in its publicity that it is, itself, an IDF Member. Subsidiaries are, however, permitted to join the IDF in their own right.

• A Member may designate an employee of one of its subsidiaries to be its IDF representative. Such might be desirable when the member wishes its name to be listed, but a subsidiary is the focal point of all IDF activity.

A membership application can be found at http://www.doi.org/membership/membership-form. html

Membership fees fall due annually on the anniversary of joining -- US members will be invoiced their member fees in US$ and non-US members will be invoiced their member fees in GBP£. The pound sterling value will be calculated each year based on the US exchange rate set at the start of each year, for 2005 this is $1.86:£1. Eligibility for Membership may be re-evaluated at each point the Member Agreement falls due for renewal.

The current annual fee for General Members is $US 35,000 (GBP£18,817).

The current annual fee for Charter Members is $US 70,000 (GBP£37,634), reduced to $40,000 (GBP£21,505) if the Charter Member is also a lender to the foundation.

The current annual fee for Members may be reduced at the sole discretion of the Board, subject to a minimum fee of $US 11,500 (GBP£6,183) per annum. There are no differences in member rights and benefits between Charter and General, nor for those for which a reduced fee is payable. Criteria which will be considered in applications for such reduction include in particular any of the following:

• Significant role in the creation or ongoing support of the Foundation.

• Not-for-profit organizations, which have annual revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of less than $US 10,000,000.

• For-profit organizations which have annual revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of less than $US 10,000,000, and are either not majority-owned by an entity with over $US 10,000,000 revenue which would fulfil the criteria for IDF membership eligibility in its own right, or are a subsidiary of an existing Member of the Foundation.

The current annual fee for Registration Agency Members is $US 35,000 (GBP£18,817).

The current annual fee for Affiliate Members is $US 2,000 (GBP£1,075). This is a minimum membership fee and Affiliate members are encouraged to donate a larger sum at their discretion.