Distributors of geospatial data must ensure that agreements made with data providers are adhered to by controlling the access and use of data. Digital Rights Management is a way to ensure that these agreements are honored. Digital Rights Management systems include a framework for implementation and rights policies which are attached to data and describe the rights users have regarding the data. Rights policies are written in rights expression languages, one of which, Open Digital Rights Language, is particularly well suited for digital rights management systems for geospatial data. Geospatial Data and Rights Management Distributors of data, especially geospatial data, desire control over their data’s movement and use, both for their own advantage and to protect certain rights of others. The chief concerns when dealing with geospatial data are privacy, information security, and property. Privacy is defined as “an individual’s claim to control the terms under which personal information – information identifiable to an individual – is acquired, disclosed, or used” (Privacy Working Group, 1995). Information security is the protection of information from unauthorized access and ensures the information’s integrity. Property is the protection of the rights of the owner of data with regard to the data. Different rights will be more important to different distributors, notably a greater importance of property in the private sector and security in the public sector. Also, control over data can protect the distributor (or provider) from liability for data, ensure regular data update to maintain quality, and ease the process of data distribution itself (Joffe, 2003). The rights of privacy and security are usually preserved by simple limitation of access to particular data to those specifically authorized to access them, and limitation of how they can use and distribute those data. Property is more difficult to deal with because of the many legal aspects of intellectual property that must be considered, and the great variety of possible agreements among data providers, distributors, and end users (Joffe, 2003). Wright, D.J., 2005, Geospatial digital rights management: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1086, 8 p. Such agreements would prevent actions, such as redistribution of data, that are not advantageous to providers. Parties involved in data movement and distribution must decide what can and cannot be done to or with the data, and be certain that these terms will be followed (Joffe, 1998). Data providers that depend on revenue from the sale of data to remain economically viable must be able to put limits on the use of their data. However, once data providers send data out to distributors and users, they no longer have any direct control over the use and movement of their data. Therefore, they must make agreements with distributors to protect their interests. To maintain relations with data providers, distributors must be able to control who can access and use data, and how they use the data. Geospatial data pose unusual problems for the protection of property rights. A typical use of geospatial data involves extracting information from multiple data sets and integrating that information to create a new data set, thus entering gray areas of intellectual property. It is, therefore, necessary to have detailed terms and conditions for the many aspects of access, use, and dissemination to protect the providers’ interests. Historically, these agreements have relied upon subjective human judgment, the goodwill of users, the threat of litigation, and the discretion of individuals involved in the distribution process. However, as Coyle (2004) notes, “Neither copyright law nor contracts assert any actual control over the behavior of users of materials. Instead, they rely on the parties to act within the stated agreement or law.” With the advent of digital methods of data distribution, the scale and ease of data movement have both increased, placing more emphasis on enforcement of these agreements, while simultaneously becoming more difficult to enforce solely through human judgment. Digital Rights Management (DRM) allows new possibilities in precise and rigorous management of data access and use. What is Digital Rights Management? DRM is the concept of digital enforcement of rights for the access and use of data. DRM provides an automated system that will consistently and rigorously enforce agreements made among users, providers, and distributors. It allows the distributor of data to control how and by whom data are used, in accordance with rules and agreements. A good DRM system serves several purposes. First, it makes sure that agreements and contracts are rigorously observed. Second, it eases the process of data distribution, and works to ensure data quality and oversee any necessary financial transfers. Third, it protects the basic rights of privacy, property, and information security. There are several main components to a DRM system. One is the data. Another component is the rights policy, which is a document attached to the data that specifies what can and cannot be done to and with them. A third component is the DRM framework, which provides for the movement of data and ensures that the rights specified by the rights policies are enforced (Iannella, 2001).