ONP-2400

Open News Protocol (ONP): Rights

Abstract

This document defines the Rights Companion: content_type = "onp:companion:rights", fulfilling the Rights pillar named in ONP-0000 Section 1.3.3. Every Article and Media Object published in this series so far has carried no explicit usage terms at all; this document closes that gap. Consistent with Principle P5 (Jurisdiction Neutrality, ONP-0003), a Rights Object declares what its issuer asserts — a license reference, optional permission flags, an optional embargo date, optional territory restrictions — and makes no claim about legal enforceability in any jurisdiction. Consistent with Principle P3 (Ordinary Technology), it reuses existing license identifier systems (SPDX, Creative Commons) rather than inventing a new one. This document also confirms, and does not re-derive, the Companion classification ONP-0001 Section 7.2 already worked through for Rights before this Companion existed to back it up.

Status of This Document

This document is part of the ONP Companion series (ONP-2000-2999). It is directly implementable. Concurrently with its publication, ONP-2100 (Article) and ONP-2200 (Media) are each updated with a new OPTIONAL rights_ref field (Section 10.3). It is a Working Draft.

Normative Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174], per the interpretation established in ONP-0000.

1. Introduction

ONP-0000 Section 1.3.3 named Rights as one of ONP's four founding pillars: "the object contains itself: copyright; license; attribution; conditions; no more separate databases." Every Companion published since then — Article, Media, Identity — has had no way to actually make that claim. This document is where the pillar becomes an implementable Companion, not just a promise in the mission statement.

2. Scope

2.1 In Scope

• the onp:companion:rights content schema: license_identifier / license_url (at least one REQUIRED), and OPTIONAL permission flags, embargo, and territory restriction fields;
• the precedence rule between the authoritative license reference and the convenience permission flags;
• the explicit statement that a Rights Object is a declaration, not an enforcement mechanism.

2.2 Out of Scope

This document does NOT define:

• any legal interpretation of copyright, licensing, or enforceability in any jurisdiction — per Principle P5, a Rights Object states what its issuer asserts, never what the law actually permits or requires;
• any access control, DRM, or technical enforcement mechanism — ONP has none; a Rights Object is checkable and verifiable, never self-enforcing (Section 4.8);
• payment terms — owned by the forthcoming ONP-2500 (Payments), kept cleanly separate: a Rights Object can exist for freely licensed content with no payment terms at all;
• a controlled vocabulary of license types — this document reuses existing external systems (SPDX, Creative Commons) rather than maintaining one (Section 4.4).

3. Terminology

This document is the owning specification for the following terms.

Rights Object : An informal name for a News Object whose content_type is onp:companion:rights.

License Reference : The authoritative statement of a Rights Object's license, expressed as license_identifier, license_url, or both (Section 4.4).

Permission Flag : One of the OPTIONAL boolean convenience fields (redistribution_permitted, attribution_required, derivative_works_permitted, commercial_use_permitted), never authoritative over the License Reference (Section 4.5).

4. Requirements

4.1 content_type Declaration

Every Rights Object MUST declare content_type as exactly onp:companion:rights.

4.2 Companion-vs-Extension Classification (Confirmed, Not

 Re-derived)

Per ONP-2000 Section 4.2, rule 2, this document confirms rather than re-derives the classification: ONP-0001 Section 7.2 already applied the decision test to Rights, as a worked example of a borderline case, before this Companion existed:

"Rights is a full Companion (ONP-2400) rather than an Extension,
because a rights declaration can be independently referenced (e.g.
by a licensing marketplace) and revised on its own version lineage,
which satisfies the independent-identity test."
                                    — ONP-0001, Section 7.2

This document is that Companion, now published.

4.3 Content Schema

1. A Rights Object MUST include at least one of license_identifier or license_url (Section 4.4).
2. copyright_holder, copyright_year, redistribution_permitted, attribution_required, attribution_text, derivative_works_permitted, commercial_use_permitted, embargo_until, and territory_restrictions are all OPTIONAL, per Sections 4.5-4.7.

4.4 License Reference

1. license_identifier, if present, SHOULD use an existing external identifier system — an SPDX license identifier or a Creative Commons short code (e.g. "CC-BY-4.0", "CC0-1.0") — where the license in question is covered by one. This document MUST NOT be read as maintaining or endorsing its own controlled vocabulary of license types; it reuses existing ones, consistent with Principle P3.
2. license_identifier MAY be a custom string for a license not covered by an existing external system (for example, "all-rights-reserved"); in that case, license_url SHOULD also be present, pointing to the actual license text, since a custom identifier alone conveys no machine-checkable meaning.
3. license_url, if present, MUST be a well-formed URI pointing to the actual, human-readable license text.

4.5 Permission Flags Are Convenience, Never Authoritative

1. redistribution_permitted, attribution_required, derivative_works_permitted, and commercial_use_permitted, if present, MUST be booleans.
2. The License Reference (Section 4.4) MUST be treated as authoritative. Permission Flags are a machine-readable convenience summary a rights-holder MAY additionally provide; they MUST NOT be treated as overriding or superseding what the actual license (identified or linked) states.
3. A Node MUST NOT interpret an absent Permission Flag as false. Absence means "not stated as a convenience flag," not "denied." A Node needing a definitive answer MUST consult the License Reference, not assume a default from an absent flag.

4.6 Embargo

1. embargo_until, if present, MUST be an ISO 8601 timestamp: the time before which the rights-holder declares this content is not yet permitted for use or redistribution by whoever this Rights Object's terms apply to.
2. embargo_until is a declaration, not an enforcement mechanism (Section 4.8) — ONP provides no technical means to prevent access or redistribution before that time; compliance is an Application-level and, ultimately, a legal or contractual matter entirely outside this document's mechanism.

4.7 Territory Restrictions

territory_restrictions, if present, MUST be an array of strings. Use of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes is RECOMMENDED for machine-readability, but this document does not mandate a specific format, since a territory restriction is itself a declared business or contractual fact, not a legal determination this document is positioned to formalize.

4.8 No Enforcement Mechanism

A Rights Object is a cryptographically verifiable declaration of what its issuer asserts. ONP MUST NOT be implemented, described, or relied upon as providing access control, digital rights management, or any technical means of preventing use that contravenes a Rights Object's terms. Enforcement, where it exists at all, happens outside ONP entirely — through licensing agreements, legal action, or platform-level policy — exactly as it does today without this Companion.

5. Object Model

{
  "content_type": "onp:companion:rights",
  "content": {
    "license_identifier": "string, REQUIRED unless license_url present",
    "license_url": "string (URI), REQUIRED unless license_identifier present",
    "copyright_holder": "string, OPTIONAL",
    "copyright_year": "string or integer, OPTIONAL",
    "redistribution_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL",
    "attribution_required": "boolean, OPTIONAL",
    "attribution_text": "string, OPTIONAL",
    "derivative_works_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL",
    "commercial_use_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL",
    "embargo_until": "string (ISO 8601), OPTIONAL",
    "territory_restrictions": ["string", "..."]
  }
}

6. Processing Model

6.1 Resolution and Precedence

A Node resolving an Article's or Media Object's rights_ref follows the standard Object Reference resolution procedure (ONP-2000 Section 6.2). Where a Rights Object's Permission Flags and its License Reference could be read as disagreeing, the License Reference governs (Section 4.5, rule 2).

6.2 Absence of a Rights Object Establishes Nothing

If an Article or Media Object carries no rights_ref at all, this document does not establish any default assumption about usage terms — neither "all rights reserved" nor "freely usable." Per Principle P5, ONP does not encode a default legal position; what applies in the absence of an explicit declaration is a matter for whatever law or convention governs the specific context, entirely outside this document's scope.

6.3 Interoperability

A Node without Rights Companion support simply does not see usage terms — the Article or Media Object it references remains fully verifiable and usable exactly as it would be for any other unrecognized Companion (ONP-1000 Section 4.4, rule 3). A Rights-aware Node gains the ability to check declared permissions before an application decides how to use the content; ONP does not require every Node to implement this Companion.

7. Examples

7.1 A Creative Commons Rights Object

{
  "oid": "onp:oid:regiopurmerend.nl:rights-cc-by-standaard",
  "vid": "onp:vid:sha-256:MnO345-example-digest-bytes",
  "publisher": { "domain": "regiopurmerend.nl", "key_id": "onp:key:2026-07-01" },
  "signed_at": "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z",
  "signature": "onp:sig:ed25519:base64url-signature-bytes",
  "content_type": "onp:companion:rights",
  "content": {
    "license_identifier": "CC-BY-4.0",
    "copyright_holder": "RegioPurmerend",
    "copyright_year": "2026",
    "redistribution_permitted": true,
    "attribution_required": true,
    "attribution_text": "Bron: RegioPurmerend.nl"
  }
}

7.2 An All-Rights-Reserved Rights Object with Embargo

{
  "content_type": "onp:companion:rights",
  "content": {
    "license_identifier": "all-rights-reserved",
    "license_url": "https://regiopurmerend.nl/gebruiksvoorwaarden",
    "copyright_holder": "RegioPurmerend",
    "redistribution_permitted": false,
    "embargo_until": "2026-08-01T06:00:00Z"
  }
}

7.3 Article Referencing a Rights Object (Anticipating ONP-2100's

 Update)

{
  "content_type": "onp:companion:article",
  "content": {
    "headline": "Fusie-onderzoek Purmerend gepubliceerd",
    "rights_ref": "onp:oid:regiopurmerend.nl:rights-cc-by-standaard"
  }
}

8. Security Considerations

A Rights Object's authenticity rests on exactly the same guarantees as any other Companion: it is only as trustworthy as the publisher's own signing key (ONP-0004, ONP-1003). This document introduces no new security property beyond what every prior Companion already relies on. Because a Rights Object makes no enforceable claim (Section 4.8), its compromise or forgery risk is limited to misrepresentation of terms, not to any technical bypass of a protection mechanism — there is no protection mechanism for a forged Rights Object to bypass.

9. Privacy Considerations

copyright_holder MAY name a specific individual (a freelance photographer or writer holding their own copyright rather than assigning it to the publisher) rather than an organization, which is personal data in the same limited sense already discussed for credit (ONP-2200) and Identity Objects (ONP-2300). This document introduces no new privacy mechanism beyond what those documents already establish.

10. References

10.1 Normative References

• [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119.
• [RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174.
• ONP-0000, Introduction — Section 1.3.3, the Rights pillar this document fulfills.
• ONP-0001, Architecture — Section 7.2, the worked Companion classification confirmed, not re-derived, in Section 4.2.
• ONP-0003, Design Principles — Principle P3 (Ordinary Technology, Section 4.4) and Principle P5 (Jurisdiction Neutrality, throughout this document, most explicitly Sections 2.2, 4.8, and 6.2).
• ONP-2000, Companion Framework — Section 4.3 (Object Reference mechanism), Section 4.2 (mandatory additions, followed throughout).

10.2 Informative References

• ONP-2100, Article; ONP-2200, Media (both updated concurrently, Section 10.3) — the Companions expected to carry rights_ref.
• ONP-2500, Payments (forward reference — kept cleanly separate, Section 2.2).
• SPDX License List — an external, existing identifier system license_identifier SHOULD reuse where applicable.
• Creative Commons license short codes — likewise reused rather than reinvented.

10.3 Corresponding Updates to ONP-2100 and ONP-2200

As part of this document's publication, both ONP-2100 (Article) and ONP-2200 (Media) are updated to add rights_ref (OPTIONAL, a single OID string referencing a Rights Object), following the same Object Reference pattern already used for contributor_refs and creator_ref. Both changes are classified MINOR (additive) under ONP-0007 Section 4.1.

Appendix A: Full Schema Reference

{
  "content_type": "onp:companion:rights",
  "content": {
    "license_identifier": "string, REQUIRED unless license_url present",
    "license_url": "string (URI), REQUIRED unless license_identifier present",
    "copyright_holder": "string, OPTIONAL",
    "copyright_year": "string or integer, OPTIONAL",
    "redistribution_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL, convenience only",
    "attribution_required": "boolean, OPTIONAL, convenience only",
    "attribution_text": "string, OPTIONAL",
    "derivative_works_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL, convenience only",
    "commercial_use_permitted": "boolean, OPTIONAL, convenience only",
    "embargo_until": "string (ISO 8601), OPTIONAL, declaration not enforcement",
    "territory_restrictions": "array of strings, OPTIONAL"
  }
}

Appendix B: Rights Object Checklist

[ ] At least one of license_identifier or license_url present
[ ] license_identifier, if present, uses SPDX/CC where applicable
[ ] Permission Flags, if any, are understood as convenience only —
    never treated as overriding the License Reference
[ ] Absent Permission Flags are treated as "unstated," not "false"
[ ] embargo_until, if present, is understood as declarative only —
    no enforcement is implied or provided
[ ] No claim of legal enforceability is made anywhere in this
    Object or its use

End of Document