Licensing

The authoritative text lives in the public repository, where it is protected by cryptographic verification. This page is a reading copy.

# AllHumans — Licensing & Rights

**Status: statement of intent, not legal advice.** This document
records the institution's licensing decisions and reasoning so that
counsel can draft the binding instruments (especially the Enrollment
Agreement) from a clear brief. Nothing here is final until reviewed
by an IP/archives attorney and a privacy attorney. Ratified in
principle by the Founder, 2026-07-06.

## The core idea: four assets, four instruments

AllHumans is not one licensed thing. It is four distinct assets,
each with a different owner and a different, well-established legal
tool. We deliberately use standard instruments rather than inventing
a new license — established law is simpler and stronger.

### 1. The code

The generator, the tools, the site, the schemas-as-software.

- **License: Apache-2.0.**
- The software must survive the founder and be rebuildable by future
  generations; anyone may recreate the interface from the open code.
- Apache-2.0 is permissive and includes a patent grant, so no future
  patent claim can be used to lock the interface away.

### 2. The Constitution and institutional documents

The Constitution, Mission, Architecture, Policy, and this document.

- **License: public-domain dedication (CC0), or CC BY-SA if we wish
  modified copies to stay open.** Freely copied and preserved
  everywhere.
- These belong to the institution, not to any individual.
- Their **integrity** — that a given copy is the authentic text — is
  guaranteed not by the license but by the published SHA-256 hashes
  (`SHA256SUMS.txt`). This is the Verification Principle in practice:
  copyable *and* tamper-evident.

### 3. The brand

The name "AllHumans," the logo, and the visual identity.

- **Protection: trademark.**
- This is the one asset we keep closed, and it is precisely what lets
  everything else be open. Because the code is Apache-2.0, anyone may
  legally run their own copy of the software — the trademark is what
  stops them presenting it as the official AllHumans. This is the
  standard open-source model (as with Firefox, WordPress).
- Practical reality (see notes below): owning a trademark is separate
  from owning domains, and enforcement is an ongoing, reactive duty
  rather than a one-time filing.

### 4. Human testimonies

The words each participant writes.

- **Ownership: the participant. Always.** AllHumans never owns
  humanity's stories; it is only their steward.
- **Instrument: the Enrollment Agreement** (a contract), under which
  each human grants AllHumans a **perpetual, non-exclusive license to
  preserve, display, and distribute their testimony for
  preservation** — while retaining their own copyright.
- **Withdrawal:** a participant may always withdraw their testimony,
  but not their Registry entry. The entry (number, timestamps,
  history) is permanent; the words are theirs to remove.

## Third-party use of testimonies — Option A (default: reserved)

A contract binds only its two parties. The Enrollment Agreement
governs the participant ↔ AllHumans relationship; it does **not**
govern a stranger who downloads a public testimony. That gap is
closed deliberately, and the chosen default is:

**No public license is granted on testimonies. Default copyright
applies — all rights reserved to the author.**

Concretely, this means:

- **The public may read** the archive freely. Reading is not copying.
- **No one may bulk-copy, republish, or commercially exploit**
  testimonies, or use them to profile or re-identify individuals, or
  train commercial models on them — none of these are permitted by
  default, and none are granted.
- **Preservation partners** (the Internet Archive, libraries,
  long-term vaults) receive specific copying-for-preservation rights
  by **explicit deposit agreement** — this is how the institution
  satisfies the Constitution's "copied freely for preservation"
  (Article VII) without handing a blanket redistribution right to the
  whole internet.

This is the reading most faithful to Article VI (testimonies are
never a commercial asset). Its accepted cost: informal mirroring by
the general public is *not* permitted, so copy-resilience comes from
formal deposit agreements rather than open mirroring. We accept that
trade in favor of protecting participants.

## The Enrollment Agreement — what it must contain

This is the load-bearing legal document and must be drafted with
counsel. At minimum it should establish:

- The participant owns their words and grants AllHumans a perpetual,
  non-exclusive preservation/display/distribution license.
- The withdrawal right and its exact mechanics (words removed
  everywhere reachable; entry and a signed withdrawal marker remain;
  private third-party copies cannot be recalled — stated honestly).
- Per-answer sealing until death, and what "verified memorialization"
  means.
- The verification tier under which the record was admitted.
- Consent framed for GDPR/CCPA and equivalents; the minimum age (20).
- A plain-language summary a non-lawyer actually understands, because
  informed consent is the point, not fine print.

## On trademark enforcement (practical, not legal advice)

Owning `allhumans.world` is a **domain** matter and is separate from
a **trademark**. Points worth holding in mind:

- A registered trademark in your primary jurisdiction is what gives
  the name legal protection — not the domain registration.
- Not owning other extensions (`.com`, `.org`, etc.) is a
  cybersquatting exposure, not a trademark loss. A registered mark
  actually gives you *recourse* (e.g. UDRP) to challenge bad-faith
  registrations that trade on your name — so the trademark partly
  compensates for not owning every domain.
- Enforcement is **reactive, not exhaustive.** You are not obliged to
  police the entire internet; you are obliged not to *abandon* the
  mark — i.e. to act on significant, confusing, commercial misuses
  you become aware of. For an early-stage nonprofit the burden is
  modest and scales with prominence.
- Sensible near-term steps: secure the cheap, high-confusion domains
  you can (at least `.org` and `.com` if available); register the
  wordmark when there are funds and use-in-commerce; keep a light
  watch and act only on the infringements that matter.

## Relationship to the Constitution

These are implementations of, and are subordinate to, the
Constitution. Where any instrument here would conflict with the
Constitution, the Constitution governs. This document is living and
may be revised by governance; the Constitution may not, except by its
own Article IX.