Towards a Formal Semantics of the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL 2.2)

Bonatti PA, Fornara N, Harth A (2025)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2025

Publisher: CEUR-WS

Book Volume: 3977

Conference Proceedings Title: CEUR Workshop Proceedings

Event location: Portoroz SI

Abstract

The Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL 2.2), being a W3C Recommendation since 2018, is a popular candidate for a policy language applied in data spaces. However, ODRL does not yet have a formal semantics. In this paper, we address this issue by making the first steps towards a formal, declarative semantics for ODRL. We start by covering a subset of the language that includes only ODRL’s main features (permissions, prohibitions, obligations, duties, refinements and constraints). This exercise naturally reveals "gray areas" in ODRL’s informal semantics, as well as lack of expressiveness; both will be pointed out during the formalization.

Authors with CRIS profile

Andreas Harth Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik, insbesondere Technische Informationssysteme

Involved external institutions

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II IT Italy (IT) Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) CH Switzerland (CH)

How to cite

APA:

Bonatti, P.A., Fornara, N., & Harth, A. (2025). Towards a Formal Semantics of the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL 2.2). In Marta Sabou, Andreas Harth, Pasquale Lisena, Edward Curry, Bohui Zhang, Reham Alharbi, Yuan He, Georg Rehm, Georg Rehm, Sonja Schimmler, Sonja Schimmler, Stefan Dietze, Stefan Dietze, Natalia Manola, Andrea Cimmino, Nicoletta Fornara, Victor Rodriguez-Doncel, John Domingue, Achim Rettinger, Damian Trilling, Damian Trilling, Marko Grobelnik, Claudia d'Amato, Valeria Fionda, Ilaria Tiddi, Gabriele Tolomei (Eds.), CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Portoroz, SI: CEUR-WS.

MLA:

Bonatti, Piero Andrea, Nicoletta Fornara, and Andreas Harth. "Towards a Formal Semantics of the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL 2.2)." Proceedings of the Joint of the ESWC 2025 Workshops and Tutorials, ESWC-JP 2025, Portoroz Ed. Marta Sabou, Andreas Harth, Pasquale Lisena, Edward Curry, Bohui Zhang, Reham Alharbi, Yuan He, Georg Rehm, Georg Rehm, Sonja Schimmler, Sonja Schimmler, Stefan Dietze, Stefan Dietze, Natalia Manola, Andrea Cimmino, Nicoletta Fornara, Victor Rodriguez-Doncel, John Domingue, Achim Rettinger, Damian Trilling, Damian Trilling, Marko Grobelnik, Claudia d'Amato, Valeria Fionda, Ilaria Tiddi, Gabriele Tolomei, CEUR-WS, 2025.

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