No AI Ethical License
https://codeberg.org/krusynth/no-ai-ethical-license

Terms And Conditions For Use, Copy, Modification, Preparation Of Derivative Work, Reproduction, And Distribution.

1. Definitions

This section defines certain terms used throughout this license agreement.

1.1. "License" means the terms and conditions, as stated herein, for use, copy, modification, preparation of derivative work, reproduction, and distribution of Software (as defined below).

1.2. "Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with that entity. This includes a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, assign of an entity, or anyone otherwise acting for the entity.

1.2.1. For the purposes of this definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

1.3. "Licensor" means the copyright and/or patent owner or entity authorized by the copyright and/or patent owner that is granting the License.

1.4. "Licensee" means the individual or entity exercising permissions granted by this License, including the use, copy, modification, preparation of derivative work, reproduction, and distribution of Software (as defined below).

1.5. "Software" means any copyrighted work, including but not limited to software code, authored by Licensor and made available under this License.

1.6. "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications, including but not limited to software code, documentation source, and configuration files.

1.7. "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical transformation or translation of a Source form, including but not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation, and conversions to other media types.

1.8. "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work (an example is provided in the Appendix below).

1.9. "Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of, the Work and Derivative Works thereof.

1.10. "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

1.11. "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and subsequently incorporated within the Work.

1.12. "Supply Chain" means the sequence of processes involved in the production and/or distribution of a commodity, good, or service offered by the Licensee.

1.13. "Supply Chain Impacted Party" or "Supply Chain Impacted Parties" means any person(s) directly impacted by any of Licensee's Supply Chain, including the practices of all persons or entities within the Supply Chain prior to a good or service reaching the Licensee.

1.14. "Duty of Care" is defined by its use in tort law, delict law, and/or similar bodies of law closely related to tort and/or delict law, including without limitation, a requirement to act with the watchfulness, attention, caution, and prudence that a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances would use towards any Supply Chain Impacted Party.

1.15. "Worker" is defined to include any and all permanent, temporary, and agency workers, as well as piece-rate, salaried, hourly paid, legal young (minors), part-time, night, and migrant workers.

1.16. "Phenotype" is defined as the entire physical, biochemical, and physiological makeup of an individual as determined both genetically or environmentally and any one or any group of such traits.

1.17. "Genotype" is defined as the overall genetic data defining the expression of characteristics of a living organism in conjunction with its environment.

1.18. "State-sanctioned violence" is defined as all forms fear or intimidation of violence or physical harm produced, promoted, and/or institutionalized by the state to the detriment of a people, their families and communities;

2. Intellectual Property Grants

This section identifies intellectual property rights granted to a Licensee.

2.1. Grant of Copyright License: Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants to Licensee a worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free copyright license to use, copy, modify, prepare derivative work, reproduce, or distribute the Software, Licensor authored modified software, or other work derived from the Software.

2.2. Grant of Patent License: Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants Licensee a worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer Software.

2.3. The Software and any modifications made to it may not be used for the purpose of training or improving machine learning algorithms, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, natural language processing, or data mining. This condition applies to any derivatives, modifications, or updates based on the Software code. Any usage of the Software in an AI-training dataset is considered a breach of this License.

3. Ethical Standards

This section lists conditions the Licensee must comply with in order to have rights under this License.  The rights granted to the Licensee by this License are expressly made subject to the Licensee's ongoing compliance with the following conditions.

3.1. Life and Liberty

The Licensee SHALL NOT, whether directly or indirectly, through agents or assigns:

3.1.1. Infringe upon any person's right to life or security of person, engage in extrajudicial killings, or commit murder, without lawful cause (See Article 3, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 6, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)

3.1.2. Hold any person in slavery, servitude, or forced labor (See Article 4, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 8, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.3. Contribute to the institution of slavery, slave trading, forced labor, or unlawful child labor (See Article 4, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 8, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.4. Torture or subject any person to cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment (See Article 5, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 7, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.5. Discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, phenotype, genotype, religion, caste, age, medical disability or impairment, and/or any other like circumstances (See Article 7, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 2, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Article 26, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.6. Facilitate discrimination through removal from or prevent meaningful access to shelter based on arbitrary, inconsistent, or unclear requirements;

3.1.7. Impose fines or fees, inadequate service, or otherwise punitive measures in housing based on discriminatory practices or policies;

3.1.8. Prevent any person from exercising his/her/their right to seek an effective remedy by a competent court or national tribunal (including domestic judicial systems, international courts, arbitration bodies, and other adjudicating bodies) for actions violating the fundamental rights granted to him/her/them by applicable constitutions, applicable laws, or by this License (See Article 8, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Articles 9 and 14, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.9. Subject any person to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile (See Article 9, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 9, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.10 Subject any juvenile person to undue/excessive legal repercussions or incarceration;

3.1.11. Subject any person to arbitrary interference with a person's privacy, family, home, or correspondence without the express written consent of the person (See Article 12, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 17, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights);

3.1.12. Arbitrarily deprive any person of his/her/their property (See Article 17, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights);

3.1.13. Forcibly remove indigenous peoples from their lands or territories or take any action with the aim or effect of dispossessing indigenous peoples from their lands, territories, or resources, including without limitation the intellectual property or traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, without the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples concerned (See Articles 8 and 10, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples);

3.1.14. Perpetuate inequality in healthcare services for people on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, sex, nationality, caste, phenotype or genotype, including, but not limited to:
  * Claim medical devices, treatments, or procedures, which are untested or tested and known to be harmful, as sufficient and exhaustive medical care without express written consent by the patient, or someone with authority to consent on behalf of the patient, acknowledging the unknown or harmful properties of the medical device, treatment, or procedure, and authorizing its use;

  * Use gender-adjusted, race-adjusted, or "race-norming" formulas that put patients at undue risk or result in insufficient standard of care;

  * Profile patients solely on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, sex, nationality, caste, phenotype or genotype, or in any other manner which would lead to care which is either negligent or insufficient to meet the standard of care;

3.1.15. Interfere with individuals' ability to vote/register to vote in both local and national elections;

3.1.16. Use Intimidation or disinformation aimed to depress the vote of people, especially those marginalized by race, ethnicity, nationality, caste, phenotype or genotype;

3.2. Extractive Industries & Harmful Organizations

3.2.1 Definitions

  For the purpose of this section:

  3.2.1.1. "Ecocide" means unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts;

  3.2.1.2. "Wanton" means with reckless disregard for damage which would be clearly excessive in relation to the social and economic benefits anticipated;

  3.2.1.3. "Severe" means damage which involves very serious adverse changes, disruption, or harm to any element of the environment, including grave impacts on human life or natural, cultural, or economic resources;

  3.2.1.4. "Widespread" means damage which extends beyond a limited geographic area, crosses state boundaries, or is suffered by an entire ecosystem or species or a large number of human beings;

  3.2.1.5. "Long-term" means damage which is irreversible or which cannot be redressed through natural recovery within a reasonable period of time; and

  3.2.1.6. "Environment" means the earth, its biosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, as well as outer space

  (See Section II, Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide, Stop Ecocide Foundation and the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, June 2021 (https://www.stopecocide.earth/s/SEFoundationCommentaryandcoretext2025-kbee.pdf);

The Licensee SHALL NOT, whether directly or indirectly, through agents or assigns:

3.2.2. Boycott / Divestment / Sanctions: be an entity:

  * Identified by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions ("BDS") movement on its website (https://bdsmovement.net/ and https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott) as a target for boycott;

  * Is a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, or assign of the Taliban; or

  * Is a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, or assign of the Myanmar/Burmese government; or

  * Does business in, purchases goods from, or otherwise benefits from goods produced in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China; or

  * Which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has currently issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) or finding against based on reasonable suspicion of forced labor; or

  * Engages in any commercial transactions with such an entity;

3.2.3. Mass Surveillance: Be a government agency or multinational corporation, or a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, or assign of a government or multinational corporation, which participates in mass surveillance programs;

3.2.4. Military & Law Enforcement Activities: Be an entity which:

  * Conducts military activities, or

  * Conducts law enforcement activities, excluding law enforcement in the interest of consumer protections (e.g.s corporate oversight, trading market regulation); or

  * Perpetuates state-sanctioned violence; or

  * Knowingly contracts to deliberately provide goods, services, or data (except as required by law or court order) to such an entity;

3.2.5. Fossil Fuel & Extractive Industries: Be an individual or entity, or a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, or assign of an individual or entity that

  * Is on the FFI Solutions Carbon Underground 200 list [https://www.ffisolutions.com/research-analytics-index-solutions/research-screening/the-carbon-underground-200/?cn-reloaded=1]; or

  * Engages in fossil fuel or mineral exploration, extraction, development, or sale; or

  * Engages in the destruction of habitats for threatened or endangered species, including through deforestation or burning of forests; or

  * Engages in the abuse, inhumane killing, or neglect of animals under human control; or

  * Engages in industrial processes that generate waste products that threaten health, life, or safety; or

  * Commits ecocide; or

  * Otherwise harms the environment in a manner inconsistent with local, state, national, or international law; or

  * Knowingly contracts to deliberately provide goods or services to such an entity;

3.2.6. Extractive Technology Industries: Be an individual or entity, or a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, or assign of an individual or entity that

  * Creates, manages, or maintains cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, or other related digital currencies or tools related to blockchain-based financial industries, or creates or manages exchanges of these technologies; or

  * Creates, manages, or maintains artificial intelligence, natural language processing, or any related technology; or

  * Creates, manages, or maintains any similar compute-intensive technology which is known to have significant energy, water, oil, or other similar resource needs which have been proven to be harmful to the environment; or

  * Sells, trades, or otherwise provides non-public information about individuals or groups without their full knowledge and clear consent, except for journalism purposes and in accordance with journalistic ethics (see Media Ethics: A Guide for Professional Conduct (https://www.spj.org/media-ethics-a-guide-for-professional-conduct/)), or uses such information for advertising or targetting purposes; or

  * Knowingly contracts to deliberately provide goods or services to such an entity;

3.2.7. Interfere with Workers' free exercise of the right to organize and associate (See Article 20, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; C087 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), International Labour Organization; Article 8, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights); and

3.2.8. Promote, lobby for, or derive income from:

  * Abuses of human rights including: genocide, human trafficking, sex trafficking, slavery or indentured servitude, discrimination, or hate speech; or

  * War or warfare, including in research or production of weapons and tools of war including conventional, chemical, biological, or otherwise; or

  * Creating, broadcasting, or promoting messages that promote killing, torture, or other forms of extreme violence; or

  * Addictive or destructive products and services such as gambling, tobacco, or products that encourage adversely addictive behaviours

3.2.9. Dissuade, lobby against, or derive income from actions that discourage or frustrate:

  * Peace; or

  * Access to the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; or

  * Democratic processes; or

  * Peaceful assembly and association, including worker associations and lawful protests; or

  * A sustainable environment

3.3. The Licensee SHALL:

3.3.1. Social Auditing: Only use social auditing mechanisms that adhere to Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network's Statement of Principles (https://wsr-network.org/what-is-wsr/statement-of-principles/) over traditional social auditing mechanisms, to the extent the Licensee uses any social auditing mechanisms at all;

3.3.2. Workers on Board of Directors: Ensure that if the Licensee has a Board of Directors, 30% of Licensee's board seats are held by Workers paid no more than 200% of the compensation of the lowest paid Worker of the Licensee;

3.3.3. Supply Chain: Provide clear, accessible supply chain data to the public in accordance with the following conditions:
  * All data will be on Licensee's website and/or, to the extent Licensee is a representative, agent, affiliate, successor, attorney, subsidiary, or assign, on Licensee's principal's or parent's website or some other online platform accessible to the public via an internet search on a common internet search engine; and

  * Data published will include, where applicable, manufacturers, top tier suppliers, subcontractors, cooperatives, component parts producers, and farms;

3.3.4. Provide equal pay for equal work where the performance of such work requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to:

  * A seniority system; or

  * A merit system; or

  * A system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or

  * A differential based on any other factor other than sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, caste, age, medical disability or impairment, and/or any other like circumstances (See 29 U.S.C.A. § 206(d)(1); Article 23, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 7, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Article 26, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights); and

3.3.5. Allow for reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay (See Article 24, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Article 7, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

3.3.6. Clearly and comprehensively publicly disclose any usage of non-public data collected on individuals using the software.

4. Supply Chain Impacted Parties

This section identifies additional individuals or entities that a Licensee could harm as a result of violating the Ethical Standards section, the condition that the Licensee must voluntarily accept a Duty of Care for those individuals or entities, and the right to a private right of action that those individuals or entities possess as a result of violations of the Ethical Standards section.

4.1. In addition to the above Ethical Standards, Licensee voluntarily accepts a Duty of Care for Supply Chain Impacted Parties of this License, including individuals and communities impacted by violations of the Ethical Standards. The Duty of Care is breached when a provision within the Ethical Standards section is violated by a Licensee, one of its successors or assigns, or by an individual or entity that exists within the Supply Chain prior to a good or service reaching the Licensee.

4.2. Breaches of the Duty of Care, as stated within this section, shall create a private right of action, allowing any Supply Chain Impacted Party harmed by the Licensee to take legal action against the Licensee in accordance with applicable negligence laws, whether they be in tort law, delict law, and/or similar bodies of law closely related to tort and/or delict law, regardless if Licensee is directly responsible for the harms suffered by a Supply Chain Impacted Party. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to include acts committed by individuals outside of the scope of his/her/their employment.

5. Notices

This section explains when a Licensee must notify others of the License.

5.1. Distribution of Notice: Licensee must ensure that everyone who receives a copy of or uses any part of Software from Licensee, with or without changes, also receives the License and the copyright notice included with Software (and if included by the Licensor, patent, trademark, and attribution notice). Licensee must ensure that License is prominently displayed so that any individual or entity seeking to download, copy, use, or otherwise receive any part of Software from Licensee is notified of this License and its terms and conditions. Licensee must cause any modified versions of the Software to carry prominent notices stating that Licensee changed the Software.

5.2. Modified Software: Licensee is free to create modifications of the Software and distribute only the modified portion created by Licensee, however, any derivative work stemming from the Software or its code must be distributed pursuant to this License, including this Notice provision.

5.3. Recipients as Licensees: Any individual or entity that uses, copies, modifies, reproduces, distributes, or prepares derivative work based upon the Software, all or part of the Software's code, or a derivative work developed by using the Software, including a portion of its code, is a Licensee as defined above and is subject to the terms and conditions of this License.

6. Representations And Warranties

6.1. Disclaimer of Warranty: TO THE FULL EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, THIS SOFTWARE COMES "AS IS," WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND LICENSOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY FOR ANY DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THIS LICENSE, UNDER ANY LEGAL CLAIM.

6.2. Limitation of Liability: LICENSEE SHALL HOLD LICENSOR HARMLESS AGAINST ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, DEBTS, DUES, LIABILITIES, LIENS, CAUSES OF ACTION, DEMANDS, OBLIGATIONS, DISPUTES, DAMAGES, LOSSES, EXPENSES, ATTORNEYS' FEES, COSTS, LIABILITIES, AND ALL OTHER CLAIMS OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE WHATSOEVER, WHETHER KNOWN OR UNKNOWN, ANTICIPATED OR UNANTICIPATED, FORESEEN OR UNFORESEEN, ACCRUED OR UNACCRUED, DISCLOSED OR UNDISCLOSED, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO LICENSEE'S USE OF THE SOFTWARE. NOTHING IN THIS SECTION SHOULD BE INTERPRETED TO REQUIRE LICENSEE TO INDEMNIFY LICENSOR, NOR REQUIRE LICENSOR TO INDEMNIFY LICENSEE.

7. Termination

7.1. Violations of Ethical Standards or Breaching Duty of Care: If Licensee violates the Ethical Standards section or Licensee, or any other person or entity within the Supply Chain prior to a good or service reaching the Licensee, breaches its Duty of Care to Supply Chain Impacted Parties, Licensee must remedy the violation or harm caused by Licensee within 30 days of being notified of the violation or harm. If Licensee fails to remedy the violation or harm within 30 days, all rights in the Software granted to Licensee by License will be null and void as between Licensor and Licensee.

7.2. Failure of Notice: If any person or entity notifies Licensee in writing that Licensee has not complied with the Notice section of this License, Licensee can keep this License by taking all practical steps to comply within 30 days after the notice of noncompliance. If Licensee does not do so, Licensee's License (and all rights licensed hereunder) will end immediately.

7.3. Judicial Findings: In the event Licensee is found by a civil, criminal, administrative, or other court of competent jurisdiction, or some other adjudicating body with legal authority, to have committed actions which are in violation of the Ethical Standards or Supply Chain Impacted Party sections of this License, all rights granted to Licensee by this License will terminate immediately.

7.4. Patent Litigation: If Licensee institutes patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a suit) alleging that the Software, all or part of the Software's code, or a derivative work developed using the Software, including a portion of its code, constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent license, along with all other rights, granted to Licensee under this License will terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

7.5. Additional Remedies: Termination of the License by failing to remedy harms in no way prevents Licensor or Supply Chain Impacted Party from seeking appropriate remedies at law or in equity.

8. Miscellaneous

8.1. Equitable Relief: Licensor and any Supply Chain Impacted Party shall be entitled to equitable relief, including injunctive relief or specific performance of the terms hereof, in addition to any other remedy to which they are entitled at law or in equity.

8.2. Copyleft: Modified software, source code, or other derivative work must be licensed, in its entirety, under the exact same conditions as this License.

8.3. Severability: If any term or provision of this License is determined to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, any such determination of invalidity, illegality, or unenforceability shall not affect any other term or provision of this License or invalidate or render unenforceable such term or provision in any other jurisdiction. If the determination of invalidity, illegality, or unenforceability by a court of competent jurisdiction pertains to the terms or provisions contained in the Ethical Standards section of this License, all rights in the Software granted to Licensee shall be deemed null and void as between Licensor and Licensee.

8.4. Section Titles: Section titles are solely written for organizational purposes and should not be used to interpret the language within each section.

8.5. Citations: Citations are solely written to provide context for the source of the provisions in this license.

8.6. Section Summaries: Some sections have a brief italicized description which is provided for the sole purpose of briefly describing the section and should not be used to interpret the terms of the License.

8.7. Entire License: This is the entire License between the Licensor and Licensee with respect to the claims released herein and that the consideration stated herein is the only consideration or compensation to be paid or exchanged between them for this License. This License cannot be modified or amended except in a writing signed by Licensor and Licensee.

8.8. Successors and Assigns: This License shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Licensor's and Licensee's respective heirs, successors, and assigns.
