Re: [SUBMISSION] AI-MIT License 1 .0 — permissive license for AI-generated code
McCoy Smith <[email protected]> Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:40:11 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.licenses.open-source.general |
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --===============0063974048343066558== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------audaliO8OwOEvY4VVjhTHRX0" Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------audaliO8OwOEvY4VVjhTHRX0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Nik: Please clarify if you want to have a discussion on this license prior to submission, or if you are submitting it for approval. If the former, then it the will be withdrawn from the approval process. If the latter, then you'll need to provide all the information required for license approval for this license. On 3/13/2026 12:05 PM, Nik wrote: > Apologize, my mistake. I'm new to mailing lists and sent this to both > addresses. > This proposal is currently up for discussion, and if the community > agrees, the final text can be submitted for review and registration > after discussion, as I understand it. > > Nik > > пт, 13 мар. 2026 г. в 18:32, Pamela Chestek > <[email protected]>: > > 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 anopensource.org <http://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 anopensource.org <http://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 <http://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 --------------audaliO8OwOEvY4VVjhTHRX0 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> </head> <body> <p>Nik:<br> Please clarify if you want to have a discussion on this license prior to submission, or if you are submitting it for approval. If the former, then it the will be withdrawn from the approval process. If the latter, then you'll need to provide all the information required for license approval for this license.</p> <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/13/2026 12:05 PM, Nik wrote:<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:CALoGuP02qhopr0+KtR_j08Fc-HHxzXY9yWX_EYyTEQKzkXg8Pw@mail.gmail.com"> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <div dir="ltr">Apologize, my mistake. I'm new to mailing lists and sent this to both addresses.<br> This proposal is currently up for discussion, and if the community agrees, the final text can be submitted for review and registration after discussion, as I understand it. <div><br> </div> <div>Nik</div> </div> <br> <div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"> <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">пт, 13 мар. 2026 г. в 18:32, Pamela Chestek <<a href="mailto:[email protected]" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">[email protected]</a>>:<br> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> <div> 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>On 3/13/2026 9:10 AM, McCoy Smith wrote:<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite"> <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>On 3/12/2026 4:20 AM, Nik wrote:<br> </div> <blockquote type="cite"> <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></fieldset> <pre>_______________________________________________ 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 <a href="http://opensource.org" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">opensource.org</a> email address. License-discuss mailing list <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">[email protected]</a> <a href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org</a> </pre> </blockquote> <br> <fieldset></fieldset> <pre>_______________________________________________ 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 <a href="http://opensource.org" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">opensource.org</a> email address. License-discuss mailing list <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">[email protected]</a> <a href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org</a> </pre> </blockquote> <br> </div> _______________________________________________<br> 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 <a href="http://opensource.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">opensource.org</a> email address.<br> <br> License-discuss mailing list<br> <a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">[email protected]</a><br> <a href="http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://lists.opensource.org/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org</a><br> </blockquote> </div> <br> <fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset> <pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">_______________________________________________ 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> </body> </html> --------------audaliO8OwOEvY4VVjhTHRX0-- --===============0063974048343066558== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Disposition: inline X19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX18KVGhlIG9waW5p b25zIGV4cHJlc3NlZCBpbiB0aGlzIGVtYWlsIGFyZSB0aG9zZSBvZiB0aGUgc2VuZGVyIGFuZCBu b3QgbmVjZXNzYXJpbHkgdGhvc2Ugb2YgdGhlIE9wZW4gU291cmNlIEluaXRpYXRpdmUuIE9mZmlj aWFsIHN0YXRlbWVudHMgYnkgdGhlIE9wZW4gU291cmNlIEluaXRpYXRpdmUgd2lsbCBiZSBzZW50 IGZyb20gYW4gb3BlbnNvdXJjZS5vcmcgZW1haWwgYWRkcmVzcy4KCkxpY2Vuc2UtZGlzY3VzcyBt YWlsaW5nIGxpc3QKTGljZW5zZS1kaXNjdXNzQGxpc3RzLm9wZW5zb3VyY2Uub3JnCmh0dHA6Ly9s aXN0cy5vcGVuc291cmNlLm9yZy9tYWlsbWFuL2xpc3RpbmZvL2xpY2Vuc2UtZGlzY3Vzc19saXN0 cy5vcGVuc291cmNlLm9yZwo= --===============0063974048343066558==--