ODRL was initially created in 2000, to address the burgeoning needs of the digital rights management (DRM) sector when media players were first introduced to the marketplace.
To date, ODRL is arguably the largest mobile implementation of a rights language, currently operating on over a billion compatible devices.
ODRL was managed by an independent Initiative, hosted by IPR Systems and led by Renato Iannella, before becoming a W3C Community Group in 2011.
ODRL Version 2.0 recognized it is equally important to state Permissions and Prohibitions in an expression language representing both DRM and non-DRM digital objects, broad adoption of this advanced model can reduce friction across digital devices and enable transparent transactions between machines in accordance with the specified policy language.
The robust framework of ODRL allows for a wide variety of business models to be expressed and to address the requirements of multiple communities, such as social networks, publishers, image libraries, and education.
In its encoded form, e.g. in a JSON or XML document, it makes the policy addressable from the outside world via its unique UID attribute.