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Linked Art API: Shared Rights

linked-art/api/shared-rights.md · 48 lines · SHA-256 9975708ccd02

Last refreshed: 2026-07-06

Source: Rights shared structure, part of Linked Art API 1.0, published under CC BY 4.0. This is a project summary; the upstream page is authoritative.

Purpose

Rights structures express machine-comparable, but not necessarily directly actionable, rights assertions about intellectual works. The kind of right or license is conveyed through `classified_as`, such as a Creative Commons URI.

Rights are commonly attached to textual works, visual works, abstract works, and statements with `subject_to`.

Required Shape

A right structure includes:

  • `type`: required. Must be `Right`.
  • `id`: optional URI identifying the right description.
  • `_complete`: optional completeness signal. If an `id` URI has richer dereferenceable information, `_complete: false` must be present.
  • `_label`: developer-facing label.
  • `identified_by`: names for the right, following the `Name` pattern.
  • `classified_as`: right or license classifications, following the `Type` pattern.

Optional Fields

  • `referred_to_by`: embedded statements about the right.
  • `possessed_by`: people or groups that hold the right.

Common Incoming Relationships

  • `subject_to`: used by `LinguisticObject`, `VisualItem`, `PropositionalObject`, and statement structures when an intellectual thing is subject to a right.

Meta Museum Notes

Meta Museum already preserves rights and reuse signals on records, media, statements, and dataset exports. Existing partner-reviewed dataset packaging also distinguishes dataset-level license from per-record object/content/media rights. The project should keep `Right` structures machine-readable while retaining explicit reuse warnings when rights are unknown or non-reuse.

Test Ideas

  • Preserve `Right` structures on textual, visual, abstract, and statement records through `subject_to`.
  • Preserve `classified_as` license/right URIs, including Creative Commons-style identifiers.
  • Preserve `identified_by` display names such as Public Domain.
  • Preserve `referred_to_by` rights statements.
  • Preserve `possessed_by` person/group references when supplied.
  • Add a dereferenceable right `id` with richer detail available and verify `_complete: false`.