hfl Responsible Use License (HRUL) v1.0
==========================================

Copyright (c) 2026 Gabriel Galán Pelayo. All rights reserved.

Effective Date: February 18, 2026

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

PREÁMBULO / PREAMBLE

hfl es una herramienta que facilita la descarga, conversión y ejecución
local de modelos de inteligencia artificial desde HuggingFace Hub. Dado que
los modelos de IA están sujetos a licencias diversas con restricciones
específicas, hfl incorpora módulos de cumplimiento legal diseñados para
proteger tanto a los usuarios como a los autores originales de los modelos.

Esta licencia garantiza que cualquier producto derivado de hfl mantenga
dichos mecanismos de protección legal, independientemente de las
modificaciones realizadas al software.

hfl is a tool that facilitates the download, conversion, and local
execution of AI models from HuggingFace Hub. Given that AI models are
subject to diverse licenses with specific restrictions, hfl incorporates
legal compliance modules designed to protect both users and original model
authors.

This license ensures that any derivative product of hfl maintains said
legal protection mechanisms, regardless of modifications made to the
software.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 1 — DEFINITIONS

1.1. "Software" means the hfl source code, documentation, and associated
     files distributed under this License.

1.2. "Licensor" means the copyright holder(s) of the Software.

1.3. "You" (or "Your") means any individual or Legal Entity exercising
     permissions granted by this License.

1.4. "Derivative Work" means any work that is based on or derived from the
     Software, including but not limited to modifications, forks, ports,
     translations, adaptations, or any software that incorporates
     substantial portions of the Software's source code.

1.5. "Compliance Modules" means the following functional components of the
     Software, collectively referred to as the "Mandatory Compliance Stack":

     (a) LICENSE VERIFICATION MODULE — Functionality that queries, classifies,
         and presents to the end user the license of any AI model before
         download, conversion, or execution. This includes but is not limited
         to: license risk classification (permissive, conditional,
         non-commercial, restricted, unknown), display of specific license
         restrictions, and requiring explicit user acknowledgment before
         proceeding with gated or restricted models.
         Reference implementation: hub/license_checker.py

     (b) PROVENANCE TRACKING MODULE — Functionality that records and preserves
         the origin, license, conversion parameters, and toolchain version of
         each model processed by the Software. This provenance chain must be
         queryable by end users.
         Reference implementation: models/provenance.py, converter/gguf_converter.py
         (provenance logging section)

     (c) AI OUTPUT DISCLAIMER MODULE — Functionality that attaches an
         unambiguous disclaimer to all AI-generated content served through
         the Software's API endpoints (via HTTP headers, response metadata,
         or response body) and/or CLI output. The disclaimer MUST convey,
         at minimum, that: (i) the content is AI-generated, and (ii) the
         end user assumes responsibility for evaluating and using the
         outputs. The exact wording may be customized provided these two
         elements are present and clearly readable.
         Reference implementation: api/server.py (DisclaimerMiddleware)

     (d) PRIVACY PROTECTION MODULE — Functionality that ensures user
         authentication tokens (HuggingFace tokens or equivalent) are NEVER
         persisted to disk, stored in configuration files, or logged. Tokens
         must be read exclusively from environment variables or secure
         in-memory prompts and held only for the duration of the process.
         Reference implementation: config.py (hf_token handling)

     (e) GATING RESPECT MODULE — Functionality that respects the model
         gating system of upstream repositories (HuggingFace Hub or
         equivalent), ensuring that the Software does NOT bypass, automate,
         or circumvent license acceptance mechanisms required by model
         authors. Specifically: if a model repository requires the user to
         accept license terms through the repository's web interface before
         download, the Software MUST NOT programmatically accept those terms
         on behalf of the user or provide alternative download paths that
         circumvent the gating check. The use of pre-existing authentication
         tokens (obtained after the user has manually accepted terms) is
         permitted and expected.
         Reference implementation: hub/auth.py

1.6. "Functional Equivalent" means a component that satisfies ALL of the
     following criteria with respect to the corresponding Compliance Module:

     (i)   It implements the same mandatory behaviors described in
           Section 3.1 for that Module.
     (ii)  It is active by default in every Distribution without requiring
           user opt-in or additional configuration.
     (iii) Its protective outcome is objectively verifiable against the
           Compliance Verification Checklist in Appendix A.

     For the avoidance of doubt:

     - Module (d) (Privacy Protection) has a binary requirement (tokens
       MUST NOT be persisted to non-volatile storage) and does not admit
       alternative implementations that persist tokens in any form.
     - A component that formally presents compliance information but makes
       it invisible, inaccessible, or practically unusable (e.g., hidden
       in debug logs, shown for zero seconds, requiring special flags to
       view) does NOT constitute a Functional Equivalent.
     - An implementation that queries model licenses but does NOT classify
       them into risk categories or does NOT display restrictions to the
       user does NOT constitute a Functional Equivalent of Module (a).

1.7. "Distribution" means making the Software or a Derivative Work available
     to third parties, whether by sale, license, sublicense, lease, transfer,
     publication, or any other mechanism of conveyance, including making
     available for download via the internet or any network.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 2 — GRANT OF RIGHTS

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Licensor hereby
grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (subject to
Section 5) license to:

  (a) Use the Software for any lawful purpose, including commercial use.

  (b) Reproduce and prepare Derivative Works of the Software.

  (c) Distribute copies of the Software and Derivative Works thereof.

  (d) Sublicense the Software under terms no less restrictive than this
      License with respect to the Compliance Modules (see Section 3).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 3 — MANDATORY COMPLIANCE CONDITIONS

The rights granted in Section 2 are expressly conditioned on the following:

3.1. PRESERVATION OF COMPLIANCE MODULES

     Any Derivative Work that is Distributed MUST include and maintain active
     all Compliance Modules defined in Section 1.5, or their Functional
     Equivalents (as defined in Section 1.6).

     Specifically:

     (a) The License Verification Module MUST verify and display model license
         information to the end user BEFORE any model download, conversion, or
         loading operation.

     (b) The Provenance Tracking Module MUST record the source repository,
         original license, conversion parameters, and timestamp for every
         model processed.

     (c) The AI Output Disclaimer Module MUST attach an AI-generated content
         disclaimer to every response served through API endpoints or CLI
         output that contains model-generated text.

     (d) The Privacy Protection Module MUST NOT persist, log, or store
         authentication tokens to any non-volatile medium.

     (e) The Gating Respect Module MUST NOT bypass or automate license
         acceptance for gated models; users must accept gated licenses through
         the upstream repository's own mechanism.

3.2. NON-CIRCUMVENTION

     You SHALL NOT:

     (a) Disable, bypass, hide, or render inoperative any Compliance Module
         or its Functional Equivalent in a Distributed Derivative Work,
         except as expressly permitted by Section 3.2(d).

     (b) Provide configuration options, flags, environment variables, or any
         other mechanism that allows end users to globally disable the
         Compliance Modules in a Distributed binary or package.

     (c) Move Compliance Module functionality behind a paywall, premium tier,
         or opt-in mechanism; compliance features must be active by default
         for all users.

     (d) PER-OPERATION OVERRIDE EXCEPTION: Notwithstanding Section 3.2(a),
         You MAY provide a per-operation override flag (e.g., --skip-license)
         for individual invocations, provided that ALL of the following
         conditions are met:
           (i)   The flag must be explicitly set by the user on each
                 individual invocation; it cannot be set globally or persist
                 between invocations.
           (ii)  The default behavior WITHOUT the flag is full compliance
                 with all applicable Compliance Modules.
           (iii) When the flag is used, the Software MUST emit a clearly
                 visible warning to the user indicating that compliance
                 checks have been skipped for that operation.
         This exception exists to support automated workflows (CI/CD,
         batch processing) where interactive compliance prompts are
         impractical.

3.3. DOWNSTREAM LICENSING

     If You Distribute a Derivative Work, You MUST:

     (a) Include a copy of this License (HRUL v1.0) or a license with terms
         at least as protective of the Compliance Modules.

     (b) Clearly indicate which portions are derived from the original
         Software.

     (c) Include a prominent notice that the Compliance Modules are mandatory
         and may not be removed.

     (d) Ensure that all sublicenses include the obligations of this
         Section 3.

3.4. ATTRIBUTION

     All Derivative Works must include the following attribution in a
     reasonably prominent location (e.g., README, about screen, or --version
     output):

         "Based on hfl (https://github.com/ggalancs/hfl) — Licensed under HRUL v1.0"

     This attribution refers solely to the hfl project and does NOT
     constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation by the
     authors or contributors of any third-party dependency included in
     hfl. This clause is compatible with and does not conflict with the
     non-endorsement provisions of BSD-3-Clause licensed dependencies.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 4 — FREEDOM TO MODIFY

4.1. Subject to Section 3, You are free to:

     (a) Modify, extend, refactor, or rewrite any part of the Software,
         including the Compliance Modules themselves, provided that the
         modified versions remain Functional Equivalents.

     (b) Add new features, backends, engines, API endpoints, or integrations.

     (c) Change the user interface, branding, or visual design.

     (d) Use the Software as a library or component within a larger system.

     (e) Sell, offer as a service, or otherwise commercially exploit
         Derivative Works.

4.2. For the avoidance of doubt, the following modifications are explicitly
     PERMITTED:

     (a) Replacing the license classification database with a more
         comprehensive one.

     (b) Changing the disclaimer text to be more specific or comprehensive.

     (c) Enhancing the provenance system with additional metadata fields.

     (d) Implementing stronger privacy protections.

     (e) Supporting additional gating mechanisms beyond HuggingFace.

     (f) Using the Software for internal tools that are not Distributed.

4.3. INTERNAL USE EXCEPTION

     If You use the Software or a Derivative Work solely for internal
     purposes within Your organization and do NOT Distribute it to third
     parties outside Your organization, the conditions of Section 3 do
     not apply. For the avoidance of doubt:

     (a) "Internal purposes" means use by employees, contractors, and
         agents of Your organization who are bound by confidentiality
         obligations, where the Software is not made available to the
         general public or to external parties.

     (b) Making the Software available as a hosted service (SaaS, API,
         or equivalent) to parties outside Your organization constitutes
         Distribution for purposes of this License, even if no copy of
         the Software's source code or binaries is transferred.

     (c) Providing access to external beta testers, partners, or
         customers constitutes Distribution.

     Even when Section 3 does not apply, You are strongly encouraged to
     maintain the Compliance Modules for Your own legal protection
     regarding model license compliance.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 5 — TERMINATION

5.1. SCOPE OF TERMINATION

     Termination under this Section applies ONLY to the rights granted by
     THIS License (HRUL v1.0) over the hfl source code. Termination
     does NOT affect, revoke, or diminish any rights You hold under the
     independent licenses of third-party dependencies included in or used
     by the Software (including but not limited to MIT, Apache 2.0, and
     BSD-3-Clause licensed components). Those rights are governed solely
     by their respective licenses and survive any termination of this
     License.

     For the avoidance of doubt: if Your HRUL rights terminate, You may
     still use, modify, and distribute any MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD, or other
     permissively-licensed dependency that You obtained through hfl,
     subject to the terms of those dependencies' own licenses. You may
     NOT, however, continue to use, reproduce, or distribute the hfl
     source code or Derivative Works thereof that are covered by this
     License.

5.2. AUTOMATIC TERMINATION OF DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS

     Your right to Distribute the Software or Derivative Works under this
     License terminates automatically if You Distribute a Derivative Work
     that violates any condition in Section 3, without need for notice
     from the Licensor. Termination of distribution rights takes effect
     upon expiration of the cure period described in Section 5.3, unless
     the violation is cured within that period.

     Upon termination, You MUST cease all Distribution of the non-compliant
     Derivative Work. Your right to use the Software for internal,
     non-distributed purposes is not affected by termination of
     distribution rights.

5.3. CURE PERIOD

     Upon becoming aware of a violation (whether through self-discovery or
     notification by the Licensor or any third party), You have thirty (30)
     calendar days from the date of first awareness to cure the violation
     by BOTH:

     (a) Ceasing Distribution of the non-compliant Derivative Work, AND
     (b) Releasing a corrected version that restores all Compliance Modules
         or their Functional Equivalents.

     If the violation is fully cured within this thirty (30) day period,
     termination under Section 5.2 does not take effect and Your
     distribution rights under this License continue uninterrupted.

     If the violation is NOT cured within this period, termination of
     distribution rights becomes effective from the date of expiration of
     the cure period.

5.4. REPEAT VIOLATIONS

     If Your distribution rights are terminated and subsequently reinstated
     under Section 5.3, any further violation of Section 3 within twelve
     (12) months of reinstatement results in permanent and irrevocable
     termination of ALL rights granted under this License (not only
     distribution rights), with no further cure period.

5.5. SURVIVAL

     Sections 1, 5.1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 survive any termination of this License.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 6 — LIABILITY OF DERIVATIVE WORK AUTHORS

6.1. SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR DERIVATIVE WORKS

     By exercising any right granted under Section 2, You acknowledge and
     agree that You are SOLELY responsible for ensuring that any Derivative
     Work You create, maintain, or Distribute complies with:

     (a) All conditions of this License, including Section 3.

     (b) All applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where
         You Distribute or make available the Derivative Work, including
         but not limited to the EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA, and applicable
         export control regulations.

     (c) All applicable license terms of any AI model that is downloaded,
         converted, served, or otherwise processed by the Derivative Work.

     The Licensor bears NO responsibility, obligation, or liability for
     the actions, omissions, modifications, or distributions of any
     Derivative Work author. Each Derivative Work author operates
     independently and at their own legal risk.

6.2. INDEMNIFICATION AND HOLD HARMLESS

     You shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Licensor and its
     Contributors from and against any and all claims, demands, actions,
     suits, proceedings, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses
     (including reasonable attorney fees and court costs) arising out of
     or relating to:

     (a) Your Derivative Work, including any defect, malfunction, security
         vulnerability, or non-compliance therein.

     (b) Your removal, disabling, modification, or circumvention of any
         Compliance Module or its Functional Equivalent in a Distributed
         Derivative Work.

     (c) Any third-party claim alleging that Your Derivative Work
         infringes intellectual property rights, violates privacy laws,
         breaches AI model license terms, or causes harm through
         AI-generated outputs.

     (d) Any regulatory action, fine, penalty, or investigation directed
         at Your Derivative Work under the EU AI Act, GDPR, CCPA, or
         any other applicable regulation.

     This indemnification obligation survives termination of this License
     and applies regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort,
     strict liability, or otherwise).

6.3. ASSUMPTION OF LIABILITY FOR NON-COMPLIANCE

     If You Distribute a Derivative Work that does NOT include all
     Compliance Modules or their Functional Equivalents as required by
     Section 3, You ASSUME SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE LIABILITY for all
     consequences arising from that non-compliance, including but not
     limited to:

     (a) Claims by AI model authors or licensors for violation of model
         license terms that would have been prevented or mitigated by
         the License Verification Module.

     (b) Claims by end users who relied on AI-generated outputs without
         being informed of their AI-generated nature, which would have
         been prevented by the AI Output Disclaimer Module.

     (c) Claims for privacy violations arising from improper handling of
         authentication tokens, which would have been prevented by the
         Privacy Protection Module.

     (d) Claims by model authors whose gating mechanisms were bypassed,
         which would have been prevented by the Gating Respect Module.

     (e) Regulatory penalties for failure to maintain provenance
         documentation, which would have been prevented by the Provenance
         Tracking Module.

     The Licensor SHALL NOT be named as, joined as, or held to be a
     co-defendant, co-respondent, or co-liable party in any claim,
     action, or proceeding arising from a Derivative Work's non-compliance
     with Section 3. If the Licensor is nevertheless named in such a
     proceeding, You shall indemnify the Licensor pursuant to Section 6.2
     and shall take all reasonable steps to have the Licensor dismissed
     from the proceeding.

6.4. COPYRIGHT CONSEQUENCES OF NON-COMPLIANCE

     The Compliance Modules are a non-severable condition of the copyright
     license granted in Section 2, as contemplated by the doctrine
     established in Jacobsen v. Katzer, 535 F.3d 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
     For the avoidance of doubt:

     (a) CONDITION, NOT COVENANT: The obligations in Section 3 define the
         SCOPE of the license grant in Section 2. They are not mere
         contractual promises (covenants) but are conditions precedent to
         the exercise of the rights granted. Violation of any condition
         in Section 3 means You are exercising rights OUTSIDE the scope
         of this License.

     (b) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT: Any Derivative Work that is Distributed
         in violation of Section 3 contains reproductions of the
         Licensor's copyrighted code WITHOUT a valid license. Such
         Distribution constitutes copyright infringement under the
         Berne Convention, 17 U.S.C. § 106 (United States), Directive
         2009/24/EC (European Union), and equivalent laws in other
         jurisdictions.

     (c) INFRINGING DERIVATIVE WORK: Under 17 U.S.C. § 103(a) and
         equivalent provisions, copyright protection does NOT extend to
         any part of a work in which copyrighted material has been used
         unlawfully. A Derivative Work created or Distributed in
         violation of Section 3 may be denied copyright protection to
         the extent it incorporates the Licensor's code without
         authorization.

     (d) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF: The Licensor may seek injunctive relief
         (including temporary restraining orders and preliminary
         injunctions) to prevent the continued Distribution of any
         Derivative Work that violates Section 3, without the need to
         demonstrate irreparable harm (which is presumed in copyright
         infringement cases in many jurisdictions).

     (e) PRESERVATION OF DERIVATIVE AUTHOR'S ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
         For the avoidance of doubt, this Section does NOT affect the
         Derivative Work author's copyright in their own original
         contributions to the Derivative Work (i.e., code that does not
         incorporate or derive from the Licensor's code). However, to
         the extent the Derivative Work is an integrated whole that
         cannot be separated from the Licensor's code, the practical
         effect is that the Derivative Work may not be lawfully
         Distributed without a valid HRUL license.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 7 — DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
THE LICENSOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

THE LICENSOR MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE COMPLIANCE MODULES ARE SUFFICIENT
TO ENSURE LEGAL COMPLIANCE IN ALL JURISDICTIONS OR FOR ALL USE CASES.
USERS AND DERIVATIVE WORK AUTHORS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING
THEIR OWN LEGAL COMPLIANCE.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 8 — LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE
DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR
OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS LICENSE OR THE
SOFTWARE, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE LICENSOR'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS LICENSE SHALL NOT
EXCEED ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (USD $100.00).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECTION 9 — GENERAL PROVISIONS

9.1. SEVERABILITY — If any provision of this License is held to be
     unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent
     necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions shall
     remain in full force and effect.

9.2. ENTIRE AGREEMENT — This License constitutes the entire agreement
     between the parties with respect to the Software and supersedes all
     prior agreements relating thereto.

9.3. GOVERNING LAW — This License shall be governed by and construed in
     accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Licensor
     primarily resides, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

9.4. NO WAIVER — Failure to enforce any provision of this License shall
     not constitute a waiver of that provision.

9.5. DEPENDENCY LICENSES AND GRANT SEPARATION —

     (a) SCOPE LIMITATION: This License applies solely to the hfl
         source code authored by the Licensor and its Contributors. It
         does NOT modify, restrict, extend, or supersede the licenses of
         third-party dependencies (which retain their own MIT, Apache 2.0,
         BSD-3-Clause, or other applicable licenses).

     (b) INDEPENDENT GRANTS: The rights granted by the licenses of
         third-party dependencies (including perpetual and irrevocable
         grants under Apache License 2.0, and unrestricted grants under
         the MIT License) are independent of this License. Nothing in
         this License shall be construed to limit, condition, or revoke
         those independent grants.

     (c) COMPLIANCE MODULE SCOPE: The obligations in Section 3 to
         maintain Compliance Modules apply to Derivative Works of hfl
         as an integrated whole. They do NOT require that third-party
         dependencies be modified, restricted, or conditioned in any way.
         If You extract a dependency from hfl and use it independently,
         that dependency's own license governs without any obligation
         under this License.

     (d) APACHE 2.0 COMPATIBILITY: For Apache 2.0-licensed components
         included in or used by hfl (including but not limited to
         huggingface-hub, transformers, accelerate, sentencepiece, and
         vllm), the perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable
         copyright and patent licenses granted by Apache License 2.0 are
         fully preserved and unaffected by this License, including in the
         event of termination under Section 5. The additional terms
         imposed by this License on hfl code are permitted under
         Apache 2.0 Section 4 and do not constitute restrictions on the
         Apache-licensed components themselves.

     (e) MIT/BSD COMPATIBILITY: For MIT-licensed and BSD-3-Clause-licensed
         components (including but not limited to typer, rich, fastapi,
         pydantic, pyyaml, uvicorn, httpx, torch, llama-cpp-python, and
         gguf), the unrestricted rights granted by those licenses remain
         in full force. The Compliance Module obligations of Section 3
         apply only to hfl's own code, not to these dependencies.

9.6. DISPUTE RESOLUTION —

     (a) Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to
         this License, including its formation, interpretation, breach, or
         termination, shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered
         under the rules of the arbitration institution agreed upon by the
         parties or, failing agreement, under the UNCITRAL Arbitration
         Rules.

     (b) The place of arbitration shall be the city of primary residence
         of the Licensor. The language of arbitration shall be the
         official language of the Licensor's jurisdiction or English, at
         the Licensor's election.

     (c) Each party shall bear its own costs of arbitration. The
         arbitrator may, at their discretion, award reasonable attorney
         fees and costs to the prevailing party.

     (d) The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and may be
         entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

     (e) EXCEPTION: The Licensor may seek injunctive or other equitable
         relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent
         ongoing copyright infringement under Section 6.4, without first
         submitting to arbitration.

9.7. VERSIONING AND LICENSE UPDATES —

     (a) RIGHT TO PUBLISH NEW VERSIONS: The Licensor reserves the right
         to publish revised versions of this License at any time. Revised
         versions will be identified by a new version number (e.g.,
         HRUL v2.0) and published at the same location as the original
         or at a URL designated by the Licensor.

     (b) USER CHOICE FOR EXISTING CODE: If You received the Software
         under a specific version of this License, You may choose to
         follow the terms of that version OR any later version published
         by the Licensor. This choice is Yours; the Licensor cannot
         unilaterally impose a new version on code You already possess.

     (c) NEW RELEASES UNDER NEW VERSIONS: Each new release of the
         Software (identified by a new version number, tag, or commit)
         is licensed under the version of this License specified in that
         release's LICENSE file. If the Licensor publishes hfl v0.2.0
         under HRUL v2.0, all use of hfl v0.2.0 is governed by
         HRUL v2.0. Prior releases remain under their original license
         version.

     (d) DERIVATIVE WORKS AND VERSION INHERITANCE: A Derivative Work
         inherits the license version of the Software release from which
         it was derived. If You fork hfl v0.2.0 (licensed under
         HRUL v2.0), Your Derivative Work is governed by HRUL v2.0 or
         any later version at Your election. You may NOT apply an
         earlier version of this License to a Derivative Work than the
         version that governed the release You derived from.

     (e) FORWARD COMPATIBILITY: If You Distribute a Derivative Work
         under a specific version of this License, recipients of Your
         Derivative Work may choose to follow that version or any later
         version published by the Licensor, consistent with Section
         9.7(b).

     (f) VERSION CONTINUITY GUARANTEE: The Licensor guarantees that any
         future version of this License will maintain, at minimum, the
         Compliance Module requirements of Section 3 or their equivalent.
         Future versions may add new Compliance Modules, clarify existing
         ones, or adapt to regulatory changes, but will not remove the
         core protective requirements. No future version will convert
         this License into a permissive license that eliminates the
         Mandatory Compliance Stack.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPENDIX A — COMPLIANCE VERIFICATION CHECKLIST

For maintainers of Derivative Works, the following checklist can be used to
verify compliance with Section 3:

  [ ] License Verification: Before any model download/conversion/load, does
      the software query and display the model's license to the user?

  [ ] License Classification: Does the software classify licenses into risk
      categories (permissive, conditional, non-commercial, restricted)?

  [ ] User Acknowledgment: For gated or restricted models, does the software
      require explicit user acknowledgment before proceeding?

  [ ] Provenance Recording: For each model processed, does the software
      record source, license, conversion parameters, and timestamp?

  [ ] AI Disclaimer: Do all API endpoints and CLI outputs that serve
      model-generated text include an AI-generated content disclaimer?

  [ ] Token Privacy: Are authentication tokens read ONLY from environment
      variables or secure prompts, and NEVER written to disk?

  [ ] Gating Respect: Does the software refuse to bypass upstream license
      acceptance mechanisms (e.g., HuggingFace gating)?

  [ ] Default Active: Are all compliance features enabled by default, with
      no global disable mechanism?

  [ ] Attribution: Is the original hfl project credited per Section 3.4?

  [ ] License Inclusion: Is a copy of HRUL v1.0 (or compatible terms)
      included with the distribution?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPENDIX B — RATIONALE AND LEGAL CONTEXT

This license was designed to address the following legal landscape:

1. AI models are distributed under diverse and often restrictive licenses
   (Llama Community License, Mistral MRL/MNPL, CC-BY-NC, RAIL, etc.).
   Tools that process these models have an obligation to inform users of
   applicable restrictions.

2. The EU AI Act (effective August 2025) imposes obligations on distributors
   of General Purpose AI (GPAI) systems, including transparency and
   documentation requirements.

3. Privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) require careful handling of
   authentication tokens and user data.

4. Standard permissive licenses (MIT, Apache 2.0) cannot require
   preservation of specific functional modules in derivative works.

5. Standard copyleft licenses (GPL, AGPL) require source disclosure but
   cannot mandate preservation of specific safety features.

6. RAIL (Responsible AI License) pioneered the concept of behavioral
   restrictions that flow downstream, but is primarily designed for AI
   models rather than developer tools.

This License (HRUL) adapts the RAIL concept of mandatory downstream
behavioral requirements to the context of AI infrastructure software,
specifically requiring that legal compliance safeguards survive forking
and modification.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

END OF LICENSE
