{"id":224,"date":"2007-02-27T14:57:56","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T22:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.formtek.com\/blog\/?p=224"},"modified":"2007-02-27T14:57:56","modified_gmt":"2007-02-27T22:57:56","slug":"metadata-file-formats-and-metadata-cause-legal-headaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/metadata-file-formats-and-metadata-cause-legal-headaches\/","title":{"rendered":"MetaData: File formats and metadata Cause Legal Headaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metadata<\/a> is often defined simply as data that describes data.\u00a0 In Content Management applications, metadata<\/em> refers to structured data\u00a0that gets attached to\u00a0unstructured documents to provide methods for consistent organization and for searching the unstructured data.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Metadata is often embedded as part of unstructured file content — Microsoft Office documents is one well-known example.\u00a0 Embedded metadata<\/a> is useful when automatically transmitting documents between systems.\u00a0 Metadata fields like ‘author’, ‘company’, and ‘creation date’ can be saved as part of\u00a0a file and then easily extracted and reused if the file is later transmitted to a new system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Embedded file metadata is typically hidden and\u00a0can usually only be found by users after drilling into some infrequently used application dialogs.\u00a0 It seems rather inocuous, but embedded metadata has become the spotlight of legal battles.\u00a0 Scanning through the web site law.com<\/a>, you’ll come across entries like “Five Hazards to Avoid While Navigating Metadata<\/a>“, “Defining Metadata Ethics<\/a>“, and “To MetaData or Not to MetaData<\/a>“.\u00a0\u00a0Metadata is described as ‘dangerous’.<\/p>\n

What are some of the legal issues or problems?<\/p>\n