Entitlement

Overview

Entitlement is a container element that groups one or more specific entitlement restrictions to define access control and distribution rules for a research Product. It carries common attributes — primaryIndicator, includeExcludeIndicator, and the optional sequence — that apply uniformly to all of its child entitlement-type elements, providing the structural foundation for expressing audience, geography, time, sector, product-category, asset-class, organization-type, and action-based restrictions on research distribution (sources: data-dictionary-2.5.1 p.54, data-dictionary-2.4 p.51, user-guide-2.1 p.35). Within the RIXML hierarchy through v2.5, Entitlement sits at Research.Product.Context.ProductDetails.EntitlementGroup.Entitlement and is the lever publishers use to express rules such as "BuySide firms in North America may view but not download equity research" [release-notes-2.5 p.8]. Multiple Entitlement elements within a single EntitlementGroup combine with AND logic, while multiple EntitlementGroup elements combine with OR logic, allowing sophisticated multi-dimensional licensing scenarios (sources: user-guide-2.2 p.37, user-guide-2.1 p.34, release-notes-2.5 p.8). In the RIXML v3.0 draft, the element has been radically simplified: it is redefined as a required string element carrying an entitlement name or code (with an optional entitlementContext attribute) and lives inside an EntitlementList rather than an EntitlementGroup. This change was made because the v2.5 container-based model was considered overly complex and largely unused in practice [data-dictionary-v3-draft p.20–21].

Usage

v2.x usage (container form). Include one or more Entitlement elements inside each EntitlementGroup. Each Entitlement must specify primaryIndicator (YesNoEnum, indicating relative priority/primary designation) and includeExcludeIndicator (IncludeExcludeEnum, indicating whether the restriction is permissive or restrictive). Use the optional sequence (Integer) to order multiple entitlements when precedence matters (sources: user-guide-2.1 p.35, user-guide-2.2 p.37, data-dictionary-2.5.1 p.54). Populate each Entitlement with one or more specific entitlement child elements. Through v2.4 these were AudienceTypeEntitlement, CountryEntitlement, RegionEntitlement, SectorIndustryEntitlement, and TimeEntitlement. RIXML v2.5 added four optional sub-elements — ProductCategoryEntitlement, AssetClassEntitlement, OrganizationTypeEntitlement, and ActionEntitlement — to support MiFID II distribution and unbundling requirements (sources: release-notes-2.5 p.8, quarterly-2017-q2 p.8, quarterly-2017-q3 p.8). Combining logic. Children of a single Entitlement and sibling Entitlement elements within the same group are AND-ed; separate EntitlementGroup elements are OR-ed. This lets publishers build composite rules such as "(Region = NA AND AudienceType = BuySide AND Action ≠ Download) OR (Region = EU AND AudienceType = Institutional)" (sources: user-guide-2.1 p.34, user-guide-2.3 p.35, release-notes-2.5 p.8). Level One profile. RIXML Level One restricts Entitlement children to RegionEntitlement, AudienceTypeEntitlement, and TimeEntitlement; CountryEntitlement and SectorIndustryEntitlement are not supported in Level One (sources: level-one-2.2 p.27, level-one-2.3 p.22, level-one-2.3.1 p.22, level-one-2.4 p.22, level-one-2.5 p.22). v3.0 draft usage. In v3.0, Entitlement becomes a simple required string child of EntitlementList (multiples allowed) whose text content is the entitlement name or code; the optional entitlementContext attribute names the platform or system in which that code is meaningful [data-dictionary-v3-draft p.21].

Rules

• MUSTEach Entitlement element must specify both primaryIndicator and includeExcludeIndicator; the include/exclude indicator determines whether the entitlement grants access or restricts it.[RIXML User Guide v2.1 p.35] [RIXML User Guide v2.2 p.37] [RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.54] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.2 p.27]
• MUSTWhen an EntitlementGroup is present, at least one Entitlement child must appear; multiple Entitlement elements are allowed.[RIXML Level One Addendum v2.3 p.22] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5 p.22] [RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.54]
• INFORMATIVEMultiple Entitlement elements within a single EntitlementGroup are combined with AND logic; multiple EntitlementGroup elements are combined with OR logic.[RIXML User Guide v2.1 p.34] [RIXML User Guide v2.2 p.37] [RIXML User Guide v2.3 p.35] [RIXML Release Notes v2.5 p.8] [RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.51]
• MUSTIn Level One implementations, Entitlement children are limited to RegionEntitlement, AudienceTypeEntitlement, and TimeEntitlement; CountryEntitlement and SectorIndustryEntitlement are not required by (and not part of) the Level One profile.[RIXML Level One Addendum v2.2 p.27] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.3 p.22] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.3.1 p.22] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.4 p.22] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5 p.22]
• MUSTWhen encoding vendor-specific entitlement codes via AudienceTypeEntitlement, each vendor's codes should be placed in their own Entitlement inside a separate EntitlementGroup so that the AND/OR semantics do not conflate codes from different vendors.[RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.20]
• MAYIn RIXML v2.5, the new sub-elements ProductCategoryEntitlement, AssetClassEntitlement, OrganizationTypeEntitlement, and ActionEntitlement are available as optional children of Entitlement to support MiFID II distribution controls.[RIXML Release Notes v2.5 p.8] [RIXML Quarterly Update 2017 Q2 p.8]↗ [RIXML Quarterly Update 2017 Q3 p.8]↗
• SHOULDPublishers should adopt the standard RIXML Entitlement elements and attributes (rather than proprietary tagging schemes) as the primary mechanism for expressing user-group entitlements in order to promote interoperability across vendors.[RIXML Quarterly Update 2017 Q3 p.6]↗
• SHOULDFor MiFID II compliance, publishers should differentiate entitlement tagging rules between historical back-catalogue content and content published after the MiFID II go-live date.[RIXML Quarterly Update 2017 Q3 p.6]↗
• SHOULDAs a tactical short-term MiFID II solution, publishers may use generic content tags and user-group values that all aggregator platforms support, migrating to standardized entitlement codes in the medium term.[RIXML Quarterly Update 2017 Q2 p.7]↗
• MUSTIn RIXML v3.0 (draft), Entitlement is a required string element within EntitlementList containing an entitlement name or code; the optional entitlementContext attribute specifies the platform or system in which that code applies.[RIXML Research Suite Data Dictionary v3.0 (DRAFT) p.21]↗

Relationships

• child-ofEntitlementGroup — Entitlement is a required child of EntitlementGroup (one-or-more cardinality) in RIXML v2.x. Sibling Entitlement elements within the same group combine with AND logic.
• qualifiesEntitlement.primaryIndicator — primaryIndicator (YesNoEnum, required) flags whether this entitlement is the primary one and provides relative priority weighting among siblings.
• qualifiesEntitlement.includeExcludeIndicator — includeExcludeIndicator (IncludeExcludeEnum, required) controls whether the entitlement grants (Include) or restricts (Exclude) access to the content it scopes.
• qualifiesEntitlement.sequence — Optional sequence (Integer) orders multiple Entitlement elements when processing precedence matters.
• containsAudienceTypeEntitlement — AudienceTypeEntitlement is a permitted child that restricts access by audience type (AudienceTypeEnum).
• containsCountryEntitlement — CountryEntitlement is a permitted child in the full schema (v2.1–v2.5) but is not part of the Level One profile.
• containsRegionEntitlement — RegionEntitlement is a permitted child and is supported by Level One.
• containsSectorIndustryEntitlement — SectorIndustryEntitlement is a permitted child in the full schema but is not part of the Level One profile.
• containsTimeEntitlement — TimeEntitlement is a permitted child and is supported by Level One.
• containsProductCategoryEntitlement — Added in v2.5 as an optional child to narrow access by product category (ProductCategoryEnum).
• containsAssetClassEntitlement — Added in v2.5 as an optional child to narrow access by asset class (AssetClassEnum).
• containsOrganizationTypeEntitlement — Added in v2.5 as an optional child to narrow access by organization type (OrganizationTypeEnum).
• containsActionEntitlement — Added in v2.5 as an optional child to specify which actions (ActionEnum) recipients may perform on the content.
• required-byResearch — MiFID II unbundling requirements drove the expectation that distributed research carry Entitlement tagging defining access rights and consumption permissions.