Linked Data Rights 2.0: extension of ODRL for Licensing Linked Data

Linked Data assets (RDF triples, graphs, datasets, mappings...) can be object of protection by the intellectual property law, the database law or its access or publication be restricted by other legal reasons (personal data pro- tection, security reasons, etc.). Publishing a rights expression along with the digital asset, allows the rightsholder waiving some or all of the IP and database rights (leaving the work in the public domain), permitting some operations if certain conditions are satisfied (like giving attribution to the author) or simply reminding the audience that some rights are reserved.

A dataset of RDF licenses

rights and conditions present in licenses for software, data and general works are expressed with the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) 2.0 vocabulary and extensions thereof. The dataset contains licenses identified by a dereferenceable URI, which are served with content negotiation providing a double representation for humans and machines alike. This feature enables a generalized machine-to-machine commerce if generally adopted.