Towards ODRL 3.0: A Use-Case Based Analysis of ODRL 2.2

14 pages•Published: October 28, 2026

Wouter Termont, Wout Slabbinck, Joachim Van Herwegen, Patrick Hochstenbach and Beatriz Esteves

Abstract

The increasing use of automated, machine-readable policy systems for governing digital content and data usage has made robust and interoperable policy languages increasingly important. The Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) aims to support such use cases but faces practical limitations in real-world applications. ODRL 2.2 lacks formal semantics and exhibits ambiguities in its conceptual model, limiting its scalability, interoperability, and reliable automated evaluation. This work analyzes ODRL 2.2 through a music distribution use case to identify conceptual and operational shortcomings. It examines limitations in ODRL’s conceptual model – such as collections, actions, and extensibility – as well as operational aspects including constraints, evaluation, and the representation of the state of the world, and proposes potential improvements. Overall, the article concludes that a formal semantic foundation and clearer model are essential for ODRL to enable consistent and interoperable policy evaluation. Future work toward ODRL 3.0 should therefore focus on formal semantics, simplified abstractions, and standardized evaluation mechanisms to support scalable policy-driven systems.

Keyphrases: authorization, digital rights, formalization, odrl, policy, semantics, usage control

In: Andrea Cimmino Arriaga, Beatriz Esteves, Nicoletta Fornara and Víctor Rodríguez Doncel (editors). Proceedings of 2nd Workshop ODRL and Beyond: Practical Applications and challenges for poLicy-base access and usage control, OPAL 2026, vol 113, pages 28-41.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/BrFn
	https://doi.org/10.29007/7glk

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{OPAL2026:Towards_ODRL_3.0_Use,
  author    = {Wouter Termont and Wout Slabbinck and Joachim Van Herwegen and Patrick Hochstenbach and Beatriz Esteves},
  title     = {Towards ODRL 3.0: A Use-Case Based Analysis of ODRL 2.2},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of 2nd Workshop ODRL and Beyond: Practical Applications and challenges for poLicy-base access and usage control, OPAL 2026},
  editor    = {Andrea Cimmino Arriaga and Beatriz Esteves and Nicoletta Fornara and Víctor Rodríguez Doncel},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Computing},
  volume    = {113},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-7340},
  url       = {/publications/paper/BrFn},
  doi       = {10.29007/7glk},
  pages     = {28-41},
  year      = {2026}}

Download PDF Open PDF in browser