Doc Searls and Larry Lessig had a nice exchange regarding the difference between Digital Rights Management and Digital Rights Expression.

If I try to follow the ping pong it goes Doc (Creative Commons rules! It’s in fact DRM), Lessig (No, DRM must include code and implies enforcement, Dave Winer (Don’t forget me), Doc (My bad).

I’m noting this because I think standardized rights expression (DRE) is the holy grail of many IT law endeavours yet is has often failed. e.g. P3P.

CC licences are a step in that direction, and embedding them in RSS feeds, in watermarks in pictures or anywhere, brings us closer to something I have no name for, but that will bring us at least a better understanding by the consumer/public of the rights/conditions/costs attached to a work.

Now, as it is, CC licences are somewhat limited in scope, and they don’t always offer an easy way to get in touch with a rights owner. I know I heard about projetcs aiming to standardized licensing terms on a more general basis. Any pointers anyone?

Oh, and really, DRE is only one step away from DRM. All you need is an architecture to enforce it. The legal system being of course the traditional control architecture. It’s ironic to see that a problem with the law is that it’s not usually meant to be perfectly enforced…