ODRL - Rights expression language (Score 4, Interesting)

ODRL is a XML based rights expression language. So it will allow you to express a license of rights that could be considered Orwellian.

It could also be used in many positive and creative ways (an exercise left for the reader).

But it is not an access control technology (DRM) in of itself.

There is another XML based rights expression language being pushed by DRM vendor ContentGuard called XrML - which they own but 'freely' licence.

The real question is: Can a rights expression language express unregulated uses?
What should the defacto position on which an instance of expressed rights (in ORML or XrML) be?
Can a rights expression language express that the content is no longer covered by copyright in the EU?

Larry Lessig's Free Culture discusses the unregulated side of this issue.