About ODRL

The ODRL Initiative began in 2001 when there was a need for an open and extensible “rights expression language” to meet the needs of various communities exploring the use of DRM – and other forms of rights management – in their sector.

The release of Version 1.1 of ODRL saw the significant adoption by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) in their DRM specifications. There are an estimated billion mobile handsets that supports the OMA DRM profile of ODRL.

Since then, Version 2.0 of ODRL has evolved into a more general policy language, so it can not only support rights expressions, but also privacy statements and other rue-based assertions.

In 2010, the ODRL Initiative celebrated a decade of operation.

Starting from 2012, the ODRL Initiative migrated to become the first W3C Community Group to ensure longevity and permanence.

The previous website (http://odrl.net) has been archived.