W3C Looks to the Future of ODRL: Why ODRL 3.0 Could Matter for Digital Rights, Data and AI
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published the report from its Workshop on the Future of ODRL, outlining an ambitious direction for the next generation of the Open Digital Rights Language. The announcement, published on September 24, 2026, follows the W3C Workshop on the Future of ODRL held in London and online in July 2026. Rather than simply proposing another update to the existing ODRL vocabulary, participants discussed a much broader vision: making ODRL a foundation for machine-readable, interoperable and increasingly machine-actionable policies that can work across industries and digital ecosystems. This could become increasingly important as organizations manage complex rules around data access, licensing, digital content, AI, privacy, finance, data spaces and digital contracts. What Is ODRL? ODRL stands for Open Digital Rights Language. It is a W3C standard designed to express policies involving permissions, prohibitions, duties and other rules associate...