Why did Creative Commons choose to use the RDF format for its metadata?
Creative Commons looked for the best way to express the intent behind the licenses in machine-readable form. We feel that our system provides the best of all possible worlds: RDF, XML, and even plain text-based tools can easily process our metadata files because we provide them with a structured format. But just as XML tools make it easier to process the information than text-based ones, RDF ones make it even easier — so we encourage all of our developers to use RDF tools where possible. We’re also working with the community to provide CC sample code, in many different languages, that shows how easy it is to take advantage of the RDF information. We’re also open to providing converters from RDF to other formats. If you have such a tool or would like one, please send information about it to our metadata list.
