RightsStatements.org

RightsStatements.org is a joint initiative of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Europeana that provides a standardised vocabulary of twelve rights statements specifically designed for cultural heritage works made available online. Launched in 2016, the statements address the gap between Creative Commons licences (which apply to works whose copyright holders actively grant permissions) and the realities of GLAM digital collections, where copyright status is often unclear, mixed across a single object, or governed by jurisdiction-specific exceptions.

The twelve statements fall into three groups: in-copyright (e.g. In Copyright, In Copyright - EU Orphan Work, In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted), no-copyright (e.g. No Copyright - United States, No Copyright - Other Known Legal Restrictions), and other (e.g. Copyright Undetermined, No Known Copyright). Each statement is identified by a stable URI, has a short human-readable label and a longer explanatory text in multiple languages, and is intended to be applied at the digital-object level by aggregators, libraries, archives, and museums sharing collections through DPLA, Europeana, and similar platforms.

[Editor draft - based on canonical knowledge; verify against rightsstatements.org/page/about/ before relying on for legal purposes.]