Managing digital rights with rights expression languages

Abstract

Digital asset managers need to track and act on the rights attached to digital assets. Rights expression languages (RELs) can help manage rights by capturing terms in a machine-readable format that can be exchanged between information systems. Although RELs vary widely in their syntax and complexity, they share common concepts that provide a framework for understanding and assessing each language. This paper discusses the concepts that underlie RELs and examines four specific languages to show how these concepts have been used in practice. The RELs examined are: Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (ccREL); Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS); Motion Picture Experts Group, Standard 21, Part 5 (MPEG-21/5); and Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL).