Re: [SUBMISSION] AI-MIT License 1 .0 — permissive license for AI-generated code

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McCoy, I also have an email where it was submitted to license-review on 
3/12/26 at 5:30 pm PT?

Pam

On 3/13/2026 9:10 AM, McCoy Smith wrote:
>
> Nik:
>
> Are you requesting approval of this license by OSI, or just discussion 
> of the license? You've submitted to the license-discuss list, which is 
> where licenses are discussed, but does not result in the license being 
> put through the approval process. Your statement that you are 
> "submitting" the license "for consideration" is ambiguous.
>
> If you are seeking approval, you need to use the correct mailing list 
> and provide all the data required for a submission, which has not been 
> done in your e-mail below.
>
> On 3/12/2026 4:20 AM, Nik wrote:
>> Dear OSI License Review Committee,
>>
>> I am submitting the **AI-MIT License, Version 1.0** for consideration 
>> by the Open Source Initiative.
>>
>> ## Summary
>>
>> The AI-MIT License is a permissive open-source license designed to 
>> address a genuine gap: existing licenses were written for human 
>> authors and handle AI-generated code poorly, creating false 
>> implications about authorship and copyright status.
>>
>> The license is deliberately minimal — it preserves the structure and 
>> permissiveness of the MIT License while adding three targeted changes 
>> for the AI context.
>>
>> ## The problem it solves
>>
>> 1. **False authorship implication.** When `Copyright (c) [year] 
>> [author]` is applied to fully AI-generated code, it implies human 
>> authorship and copyright that may not legally exist in most 
>> jurisdictions.
>>
>> 2. **No standard for disclosure.** There is no widely adopted 
>> mechanism for disclosing whether code is AI-generated, AI-assisted, 
>> or human-authored. This matters for supply-chain security, regulatory 
>> compliance (EU AI Act), and intellectual honesty in open source.
>>
>> 3. **Undefined copyright status.** Fully autonomous AI-generated code 
>> (no human creative input) is in a legal grey zone in most 
>> jurisdictions. A license that claims copyright over it is at best 
>> misleading, at worst invalid.
>>
>> ## What the license does differently from MIT
>>
>> The license adds one structural element (the Authorship Declaration) 
>> and three conditions/clauses:
>>
>> **Authorship Declaration** — a required checkbox at the top of the 
>> LICENSE file with three modes:
>> - *Fully AI-generated*: no copyright claimed; code dedicated to 
>> public domain
>> - *AI-assisted*: human-directed, AI-generated; standard copyright applies
>> - *Human-authored*: AI used as a tool only; identical to MIT posture
>>
>> **Condition 2 — Transparency**: redistribution or use as AI training 
>> data must not misrepresent AI origin as human authorship.
>>
>> **Condition 3 — No Copyright Claim**: for fully autonomous code, 
>> explicit public domain dedication (with a perpetual irrevocable 
>> fallback for jurisdictions where public domain dedication is impossible).
>>
>> **Extended disclaimer**: adds three AI-specific disclaimers about 
>> training data provenance, regulatory compliance, and jurisdictional 
>> limitations of the authorship declaration.
>>
>> ## OSD compliance analysis
>>
>> 1. **Free Redistribution** ✓ — no restriction on sale or distribution
>> 2. **Source Code** ✓ — no source restriction
>> 3. **Derived Works** ✓ — modification and redistribution permitted
>> 4. **Integrity of the Author's Source Code** ✓ — no patch-file 
>> requirement; attribution preserved
>> 5. **No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups** ✓
>> 6. **No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor** ✓
>> 7. **Distribution of License** ✓ — same rights apply to all recipients
>> 8. **License Must Not Be Specific to a Product** ✓
>> 9. **License Must Not Restrict Other Software** ✓
>> 10. **License Must Be Technology-Neutral** ✓
>>
>> The Transparency condition (Condition 2) requires disclosure of AI 
>> origin but does not restrict use in any field — it is an 
>> attribution/honesty requirement, not a field-of-endeavor restriction.
>>
>> ## SPDX identifier
>>
>> We are concurrently requesting the SPDX identifier `AI-MIT-1.0` 
>> through the SPDX GitHub repository.
>>
>> ## Repository
>>
>> The full license text, README, translations, and supporting materials 
>> are available at:
>> https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license
>>
>> ## A note on meta-context
>>
>> This license was initially drafted with AI assistance (Claude, 
>> Anthropic) at the direction of a human. We believe this is 
>> appropriate and have disclosed it in the repository. The license is 
>> itself an example of the category of work it governs.
>>
>> We welcome feedback from the committee and the community at large.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>> Nik
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
>>
>> License-discuss mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
>
> License-discuss mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org

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    McCoy, I also have an email where it was submitted to license-review
    on 3/12/26 at 5:30 pm PT?<br>
    <br>
    Pam<br>
    <br>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/13/2026 9:10 AM, McCoy Smith
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
      cite="mid:[email protected]">
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <p>Nik:</p>
      <p>Are you requesting approval of this license by OSI, or just
        discussion of the license? You've submitted to the
        license-discuss list, which is where licenses are discussed, but
        does not result in the license being put through the approval
        process. Your statement that you are "submitting" the license
        "for consideration" is ambiguous.</p>
      <p>If you are seeking approval, you need to use the correct
        mailing list and provide all the data required for a submission,
        which has not been done in your e-mail below.</p>
      <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/12/2026 4:20 AM, Nik wrote:<br>
      </div>
      <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CALoGuP2xLo_YCyvotEbbi9GDReMWZz-QPTfvhbDRx-L0ffZq-A@mail.gmail.com">
        <meta http-equiv="content-type"
          content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <div dir="ltr">Dear OSI License Review Committee,<br>
          <br>
          I am submitting the **AI-MIT License, Version 1.0** for
          consideration by the Open Source Initiative.<br>
          <br>
          ## Summary<br>
          <br>
          The AI-MIT License is a permissive open-source license
          designed to address a genuine gap: existing licenses were
          written for human authors and handle AI-generated code poorly,
          creating false implications about authorship and copyright
          status.<br>
          <br>
          The license is deliberately minimal — it preserves the
          structure and permissiveness of the MIT License while adding
          three targeted changes for the AI context.<br>
          <br>
          ## The problem it solves<br>
          <br>
          1. **False authorship implication.** When `Copyright (c)
          [year] [author]` is applied to fully AI-generated code, it
          implies human authorship and copyright that may not legally
          exist in most jurisdictions.<br>
          <br>
          2. **No standard for disclosure.** There is no widely adopted
          mechanism for disclosing whether code is AI-generated,
          AI-assisted, or human-authored. This matters for supply-chain
          security, regulatory compliance (EU AI Act), and intellectual
          honesty in open source.<br>
          <br>
          3. **Undefined copyright status.** Fully autonomous
          AI-generated code (no human creative input) is in a legal grey
          zone in most jurisdictions. A license that claims copyright
          over it is at best misleading, at worst invalid.<br>
          <br>
          ## What the license does differently from MIT<br>
          <br>
          The license adds one structural element (the Authorship
          Declaration) and three conditions/clauses:<br>
          <br>
          **Authorship Declaration** — a required checkbox at the top of
          the LICENSE file with three modes:<br>
          - *Fully AI-generated*: no copyright claimed; code dedicated
          to public domain<br>
          - *AI-assisted*: human-directed, AI-generated; standard
          copyright applies<br>
          - *Human-authored*: AI used as a tool only; identical to MIT
          posture<br>
          <br>
          **Condition 2 — Transparency**: redistribution or use as AI
          training data must not misrepresent AI origin as human
          authorship.<br>
          <br>
          **Condition 3 — No Copyright Claim**: for fully autonomous
          code, explicit public domain dedication (with a perpetual
          irrevocable fallback for jurisdictions where public domain
          dedication is impossible).<br>
          <br>
          **Extended disclaimer**: adds three AI-specific disclaimers
          about training data provenance, regulatory compliance, and
          jurisdictional limitations of the authorship declaration.<br>
          <br>
          ## OSD compliance analysis<br>
          <br>
          1. **Free Redistribution** ✓ — no restriction on sale or
          distribution<br>
          2. **Source Code** ✓ — no source restriction<br>
          3. **Derived Works** ✓ — modification and redistribution
          permitted<br>
          4. **Integrity of the Author's Source Code** ✓ — no patch-file
          requirement; attribution preserved<br>
          5. **No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups** ✓<br>
          6. **No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor** ✓<br>
          7. **Distribution of License** ✓ — same rights apply to all
          recipients<br>
          8. **License Must Not Be Specific to a Product** ✓<br>
          9. **License Must Not Restrict Other Software** ✓<br>
          10. **License Must Be Technology-Neutral** ✓<br>
          <br>
          The Transparency condition (Condition 2) requires disclosure
          of AI origin but does not restrict use in any field — it is an
          attribution/honesty requirement, not a field-of-endeavor
          restriction.<br>
          <br>
          ## SPDX identifier
          <div><br>
            We are concurrently requesting the SPDX identifier
            `AI-MIT-1.0` through the SPDX GitHub repository.<br>
            <br>
            ## Repository</div>
          <div><br>
            The full license text, README, translations, and supporting
            materials are available at:  <br>
            <a href="https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license"
              target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
              class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license</a><br>
            <br>
            ## A note on meta-context</div>
          <div><br>
            This license was initially drafted with AI assistance
            (Claude, Anthropic) at the direction of a human. We believe
            this is appropriate and have disclosed it in the repository.
            The license is itself an example of the category of work it
            governs.<br>
            <br>
            We welcome feedback from the committee and the community at
            large.<br>
            <br>
            Respectfully,  <font color="#888888"><font color="#888888"><br>
                Nik  </font></font></div>
        </div>
        <br>
        <fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
        <pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.

License-discuss mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
        href="mailto:[email protected]"
        moz-do-not-send="true">[email protected]</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org"
        moz-do-not-send="true">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org</a>
</pre>
      </blockquote>
      <br>
      <fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
      <pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Official statements by the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.

License-discuss mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org</a>
</pre>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
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