Speaking in a session on copyright on the web at yesterday’s SIIA Global Information Industry Summit, Greg Merkle, vice president and creative director of Dow Jones‘ enterprise division, said a standard system for tagging the copyright of material online is needed – in particular, because of the growing use of social media tools to distribute content.

Dow Jones relies on ‘trust’ and ’emerging standards’ to prevent news and information, which it releases through social media tools such as RSS feeds, from leaving that network, said Merkle.

“There’s no standard for marking up the copyright of information. We are looking at microformats which is a way to say this is copyrighted,” he said.

“We know users collaborate on information, but there are no provisions and no guidelines. We instill trust and we are banking on emerging standards.”