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RDF Site Summary 1.0 Modules: mod_cc

Authors

Ben Hammersley, benhammersley.com

Based on the hard work of the Creative Commons team

Version

Latest Version: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/files/Modules/Proposed/mod_cc.html

1.0 2002-08-11 - First Draft

Status

Proposed

Rights

Copyright © 2002 by the Authors.

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this RDF Site Summary 1.0 Module Specification and its accompanying documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted in perpetuity, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph appear in all copies. The copyright holders make no representation about the suitability of the specification for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without expressed or implied warranty.

This copyright applies to this RDF Site Summary 1.0 Module Specification and accompanying documentation and does not extend to the RSS Module's format itself.

Description

This module aims to give metadata regarding the copyright license under which the RSS feed, and the objects it points to, are released under. As the name suggests, it originates from the Creative Commons project, but is not restricted to the licenses that they produce. Rather, it is designed to allow for the inclusion of any existing and future licenses, and to provide for the simple description thereof. More details on this can be found on the Creative Commons site, especially the metadata specification page.

This module is notable for another reason: it is the first RSS 1.0 module to fully utilise RDF syntax. As you will see, it requires the inclusion of another element at the same level as <channel> and <item> within the document. This should present no problems, but should be noted as historic, and quite cool.

Namespace Declarations

Syntax

<cc:license rdf:resource="URI OF LICENSE" />

<cc:license rdf:resource=""> can be a sub-element of an RSS item, channel or image. The license it refers to is applied to the parent element. As with any RDF elements, an occurance of <cc:license> within any element implies the copyright of the document contained with the rdf:about attribute of that parent element, and not the document pointed to by the <link> sub-element.

The element contains a single rdf:resource attribute which contains the URI of the license applied.

<cc:License rdf:about="URI OF LICENSE">

<cc:License rdf:about="http://www.creativecommons.org/licences/example"> is a element on the first level of the RSS document: on the same level as the <channel> and <item> elements. We require one appearance of the element for every license referred to by the <cc:licence rdf:resource=""> element, as above. It takes a combination of the two elements <cc:permits> and <cc:requires>

<cc:permits rdf:resource="URI OF BEHAVIOUR" />

<cc:permits> is a sub-element of the <cc:License rdf:about=""> element. It takes a single rdf:resource="" which should contain a URI of a concept of behaviour that the license permits. Currently, Creative Commons suggests three possible values for this:

But it should be noted that this module does not limit itself to Creative Commons standards. The <cc:permits> element can refer to concepts from any relevent authority.

<cc:requires rdf:resource="URI OF BEHAVIOUR" />

<cc:requires> is a sub-element of the <cc:License rdf:about=""> element. It takes a single rdf:resource="" which should contain a URI of a concept of behaviour that the license requires. Currently, Creative Commons suggests four possible values for this:

But it should be noted, again, that this module does not limit itself to Creative Commons standards. The <cc:requires> element can refer to concepts from any relevent authority.

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rdf:RDF 
  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
  xmlns:cc="http://web.resource.org/cc/"
xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"
> <channel rdf:about="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/?_fl=rss1.0">
<title>Meerkat</title>
<link>http://meerkat.oreillynet.com</link>
<description>Meerkat: An Open Wire Service</description>
<cc:license rdf:resource="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/example1" />

<image rdf:resource="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/icons/meerkat-powered.jpg" />

<items>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li resource="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r123" />
</rdf:Seq>
</items>

</channel>

<image rdf:about="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/icons/meerkat-powered.jpg">
<title>Meerkat Powered!</title>
<url>http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/icons/meerkat-powered.jpg</url>
<link>http://meerkat.oreillynet.com</link>
<cc:license rdf:resource="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/example2" />
</image>

<item rdf:about="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r123">
<title>XML: A Disruptive Technology</title> <link>http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r123</link>
<cc:license rdf:resource="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/example2" />
</item> 
<cc:License rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/example1">
<cc:permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Reproduction" />
<cc:permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Distribution" />
<cc:requires rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Notice" />
<cc:requires rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Attribution" />
</cc:License>

<cc:License rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/example2">
<cc:permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Reproduction" />
<cc:permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Distribution" />
<cc:requires rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Copyleft">
</cc:License>



</rdf:RDF>