What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?
Creative Commons has CC_REL specified a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses. For examples, see CC REL#Examples. Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether a work was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution). Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY co
