Rights Layer Specification

Use Case: Subscription (Right to Use a Service)

Status: Draft v0.1.0 — This section is informative.

Scenario

Yuki subscribes to the standard plan of an online media service. The Source of the Right is the subscription agreement concluded under the provider’s terms of service — a Source of kind contract, referenced through an Agreement Reference of kind terms whose parties are Yuki and the provider. The provider is the Authority in the model’s sense: a contracting party with granting power, acting as grantor and as the issuer of Eligibility Responses about the subscription’s state. The Object is the service plan, and the provider’s subscription management system is the Evidence Source for the subscription’s state.

The Right — the subscriber’s entitlement under the agreement — carries two Actions. use-service has two Eligibilities, one requirement each: the subscription is active (not cancelled, expired, or suspended), and payment for the current billing period has been made. cancel is also an Action of the same Right — terminating the relationship is itself something the Subject is entitled to do under the terms — with its own Eligibilities. Each Eligibility is answered by at most one Boolean Eligibility Response issued by the provider; how the provider checks its records is outside Rights Layer.

This use case deliberately shows the negative path. In the example, Yuki requests use of the service; the provider answers the subscription-active Eligibility true but the payment-current Eligibility false — a missed payment. Because one Response is false, no Decision is established: the expression contains no Decision entity and no Exercise entity for use-service — the model has no negative Decision and no third value, so there is simply nothing of that kind to record. The Right itself continues to exist unchanged; when payment is made, a fresh true Response can be issued and a Decision can then be established. That is exactly the distinction the model draws between existence and exercisability. The Eligibilities of cancel are left unanswered, so no Decision exists for that Action either.

Mapping

Rights Layer concept	Domain instance
Subject	Yuki, the subscriber
Object	The subscribed service plan
Right	The subscriber’s right to use the service under the agreement
Source	Contract: subscription agreement under the terms of service (Agreement Reference, kind `terms`)
Authority	The service provider (contracting party with granting power; grantor and Response issuer)
Action	`use-service`; `cancel`
Eligibility (`use-service`)	Two Eligibilities, one requirement each: subscription active; payment current for the billing period
Eligibility (`cancel`)	Two Eligibilities: subscription active; cancellation requested in the manner set out in the terms
Eligibility Response (1:1)	Subscription active: `true` by the provider; payment current: `false` by the provider. How the provider evaluates its records is outside the layer.
Evidence / Evidence Source	Subscription record from the provider’s subscription management system, referenced by the `true` Response
Decision	Not established for `use-service`: one Response is `false`, so no Decision entity exists (there is no negative Decision)
Exercise / Exercise Event	None for `use-service` — an Exercise presupposes an established Decision; the request remains recorded as an `ExerciseRequested` Event
Event	`RightGranted` at subscription start; `ExerciseRequested`; two `EligibilityResponseIssued` Events, one carrying `value: false`

Chain Instantiation

flowchart TD
    S["Source<br/>Contract: subscription agreement<br/>under terms of service"] --> R["Right<br/>Subscriber's right to use<br/>the service (held by Yuki)"]
    R --> A1["Action<br/>use-service"]
    R --> A2["Action<br/>cancel"]
    A1 --> EL1["Eligibility<br/>subscription active"]
    A1 --> EL2["Eligibility<br/>payment current"]
    A2 --> EL3["Eligibilities<br/>(unanswered: no Decision)"]
    EL1 --> ER1["Response: true<br/>issuer: the provider"]
    EL2 --> ER2["Response: false<br/>issuer: the provider"]
    ER1 --> D["Decision<br/>NOT established:<br/>one Response is false"]
    ER2 --> D
    D -.->|"no Decision entity,<br/>no Exercise"| EX["(no Exercise)"]

What Rights Layer Does Not Model

The provider’s subscription management system remains the system of record for the subscription, billing, and payment state; the expression references it and never restates the terms of service.
Evaluation methods are outside the layer. How the provider checks the subscription state or the payment ledger is its own business; only the verifiable Boolean Responses enter the model.
Context-like material is not modeled. Session, device, time of access, and plan scope are gathered and assessed outside the layer by the provider as issuer; the core has no Context entity.
A Decision carries no institutional effect — and its absence carries none either. That no Decision is established for use-service records a fact about Responses; how the provider acts on it (blocking access, dunning, grace periods) is an implementation and institutional concern.
The content of the terms — plan features, fair-use limits, refund policy — is not modeled; Eligibility statements point at it and the agreement governs.
Access control enforcement, session management, and billing mechanics are concerns of the adopting systems; the layer is descriptive, not enforcing.
Consumer protection law applies to the underlying relationship in its own right; its interventions would appear as Sources or Events, not as new kinds of Right.

Example

Machine-readable expression: subscription.json

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