Elthian-Custom License v1.0 (Suite-Standard)
- Purpose and Intent
This License is a framework that allows the Licensor to define custom AI usage permissions and restrictions for the Content through a machine-readable policy (“Policy”). The Policy specifies what uses are allowed or prohibited, including AI Search, Training, RAG, Embeddings, AI Indexing, Product Use, and output constraints.
Where a valid Policy exists, it controls. Where a Policy is missing, unavailable, invalid, or materially ambiguous, the default is Elthian-NoAI (no rights granted for AI use).
- Definitions
Core Definitions
For purposes of this License:
2.1 “Content” means the copyrighted work(s) (text, images, audio, video, data compilations, metadata, markup, and other protectable expression) that reference or incorporate this License.
2.2 “AI System” means any automated system, model, agent, service, crawler, pipeline, or tool that performs or enables any of the following using algorithmic, statistical, machine learning, neural network, or similar techniques: inference, generation, summarization, embedding, clustering, classification, ranking, retrieval augmentation, or training.
2.3 “Automated Access” means access to Content by non-human means, including crawling, scraping, harvesting, downloading, indexing, parsing, copying, screenshotting, transcription, or any programmatic retrieval, whether authenticated or not.
2.4 “Training” means using Content to create, improve, tune, evaluate, benchmark, label, curate datasets for, or otherwise influence the parameters, weights, internal representations, routing, memory, retrieval behavior, safety behavior, preferences, or performance of an AI System, including pretraining, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, preference learning, supervised learning, self-supervised learning, evaluation, benchmarking, dataset construction, filtering, labeling, and data annotation for model development.
2.5 “Inference” means processing Content at run time to produce outputs, including answers, summaries, classifications, rankings, or generated content, regardless of whether Training occurs.
2.6 “Embedding” means any vector, token sequence, latent representation, hash-derived semantic signature, or other representation computed from Content for storage, retrieval, similarity comparison, clustering, or downstream use.
2.7 “RAG” (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) means any system or workflow in which Content is retrieved, embedded, injected, provided, or otherwise used at inference time to influence, condition, or generate output by an AI System.
2.8 “Product Use” means use of Content by or within an AI-enabled product, feature, agent, workflow, assistant, copilot, or service, whether internal or external, whether public-facing or restricted, and regardless of whether Training occurs.
2.9 “Derivative AI Output” means any output that reproduces, paraphrases, summarizes, translates, imitates, transforms, or otherwise reflects protected expressive elements of the Content, including its protectable selection, coordination, and arrangement, including output that materially substitutes for the Content.
2.10 “Licensee” means any individual or entity that accesses or uses the Content under this License, including any entity that deploys, operates, provides, or controls an AI System.
2.11 “Human Access” means access by a natural person using a standard web browser or comparable interactive user agent, without Automated Access. Human Access does not include a natural person delegating retrieval, parsing, summarization, extraction, or interpretation of the Content to an AI System, OS-level agent, headless browser, automation tool, or synthetic user agent.
2.12 “Incidental Technical Copying” means transient copies made solely as a necessary technical step in ordinary network transmission or browser rendering (for example, caching by a browser, CDN, ISP, or proxy), provided such copying is not used for Automated Access, AI processing, Product Use, RAG, Training, or Embedding, and is not repurposed for any AI System.
2.13 “Attribution” means reasonable credit to the Licensor (and author where provided), including (where a public URL exists) a link to the original Content, and a reference to this License’s canonical URL.
2.14 “Scope” means the Content coverage to which a license notice or policy applies, which may be site-wide, limited to a section or category, defined by a URL pattern, or limited to an individual resource or URL.
2.15 “AI Search” means query-based discovery whose output: (a) includes Attribution and a direct, user-clickable link to the original Content, (b) presents only non-substitutive excerpts or metadata-level signals as permitted by the applicable license, and (c) is designed to direct the user to the source rather than provide a stand-alone answer.
2.16 “AI Indexing” means building, maintaining, or updating an index or retrieval structure over Content for AI Search or other AI System uses, including creating or maintaining inverted indexes, vector indexes, embedding stores, feature stores, or other retrieval artifacts.
Additional Definitions (License-Specific)
2.17 “Policy” means a machine-readable policy declaration published by or on behalf of the Licensor that specifies permitted and prohibited uses of the Content, including any capability overrides, scope rules, and any special conditions.
2.18 “Policy Identifier” means a stable identifier for the Policy that is either: (a) a URL controlled by the Licensor (or published by the Licensor’s plugin), or (b) a cryptographic identifier (for example, sha256:) that resolves to a Policy via a Licensor-controlled URL, registry, or disclosure mechanism.
2.19 “Policy URL” means the URL where the Policy can be retrieved in machine-readable form.
2.20 “Valid Policy” means a Policy that (a) is retrievable from the Policy URL or otherwise resolvable from the Policy Identifier, (b) is parseable and not materially ambiguous, and (c) declares at least a default_policy license identifier consistent with the Elthian Policy Declaration schema.
- Policy Controls; Default Restriction
3.1 Policy is Binding. The Policy is incorporated by reference and is legally binding as part of this License.
3.2 Default if Missing or Invalid. If no Policy Identifier is provided, or the Policy is unavailable, invalid, or materially ambiguous, then no rights are granted for AI use and all Automated Access is prohibited (default Elthian-NoAI posture).
3.3 Most Restrictive Interpretation. If any Policy provision conflicts with this License, the most restrictive interpretation consistent with the Licensor’s expressed intent applies.
- License Grant (As Defined by Policy)
4.1 Grant. Subject to full compliance with this License and the Policy, Licensor grants Licensee a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Content only as expressly permitted by the Policy.
4.2 No Other Rights. Any use not expressly permitted by the Policy is prohibited.
4.3 Condition of Grant. Compliance with the Policy is a condition of the grant. Any violation terminates the grant immediately.
- Minimum Required Policy Fields
To be valid, a Policy must specify, at minimum:
5.1 License Reference. A reference to this License’s canonical URL and an Elthian license identifier (for example, “elthian-custom”) in the Policy’s default_policy.
5.2 Scope. The Scope covered (for example, site-wide, category, URL pattern, or individual resource).
5.3 Permissions and Capabilities. Clear allowed/prohibited states for each of:
• Automated Access
• AI Search
• AI Indexing
• Training
• Embedding persistence/retention
• RAG
• Product Use
• Output substitution constraints (for example, excerpt-only vs derivative output permitted)
5.4 Retention Rules. Where ephemeral processing is permitted, a time limit for deletion.
5.5 Attribution Rules. Whether and how Attribution and linking must be displayed, including whether search citations are required.
If any of these are missing, the Policy is invalid and Section 3.2 applies.
- Anti-Circumvention and Evasion
6.1 No Fragmentation Evasion. Licensee may not fragment retrieval across multiple requests, IPs, accounts, regions, vendors, or agents to evade Policy restrictions.
6.2 No Proxy Laundering. Licensee may not use intermediaries to obtain Content in violation of the Policy.
6.3 No Reassembly. Licensee may not reconstruct or approximate Content through aggregation of outputs or partial extracts where prohibited.
- Conditions of Use
7.1 Attribution and Linking. Where outputs include citations, results, or references, Licensee must provide Attribution as required by the Policy.
7.2 License Notice. Where Licensee redistributes the Content in whole or substantial part (to the extent permitted by the Policy or other rights), Licensee must include a reference to this License by name and canonical URL in a reasonable location.
7.3 No Removal of Notices. Licensee must not remove, obscure, or falsify copyright notices, authorship information, or embedded licensing metadata.
7.4 No Endorsement. Licensee must not imply that Licensor endorses Licensee, Licensee’s AI System, or any outputs, products, or services, unless separately agreed in writing.
7.5 Compliance With Law. Licensee is responsible for compliance with applicable law, including privacy, consumer protection, intellectual property, and any sector-specific obligations.
- Privacy, Publicity, and Sensitive Content
8.1 No Privacy or Publicity Rights Granted. This License grants rights only to the extent of the Licensor’s copyright and related rights in the Content. It does not grant any rights of privacy, publicity, personality, biometric, or similar rights that may apply to individuals depicted, described, or referenced in the Content.
8.2 Personal Data Handling. If the Content includes personal data, Licensee is solely responsible for ensuring a lawful basis for any collection, processing, retention, Training, or downstream use of such personal data, and for meeting all notice, consent, deletion, and retention obligations under applicable law.
8.3 Sensitive Use Risk Allocation. Licensee bears all risk of claims arising from Licensee’s processing, generation, or distribution of outputs involving personal data, sensitive categories of information, or regulated uses.
- Human Access and Incidental Technical Copying
9.1 Human Access Allowed. Human Access remains unaffected.
9.2 Incidental Technical Copying Allowed. Incidental Technical Copying is permitted only where it does not enable prohibited AI use.
- Notice, Metadata, and Technical Signals
10.1 Signals Are Complementary. The Content may provide notice of this License through robots.txt, llms.txt, HTTP headers, meta tags, structured data, sitemaps, or other machine-readable signals. Absence of one signal does not waive the License where other notice exists.
10.2 Technical Signals Do Not Expand Rights. Technical directives are complementary signals and do not expand the scope of rights granted by this License.
- Termination
11.1 Immediate Termination on Breach. Any violation of this License or the Policy terminates the rights granted under Section 4 immediately.
11.2 Cessation and Deletion. Upon termination, Licensee must cease use of the Content and, where feasible and subject to applicable law, delete retained copies of the Content and derived representations that would otherwise enable continued use.
11.3 No Rights by Cure. Curing a breach does not reinstate rights or grant rights not expressly granted.
- Remedies
12.1 Injunctive Relief. Unauthorized use may cause irreparable harm. Licensor may seek injunctive or equitable relief in addition to other remedies.
12.2 Statutory Rights Preserved. This License does not limit any rights or remedies available under copyright law, including statutory damages where applicable.
- Compliance Evidence and Cooperation (Privacy-Safe)
13.1 Reasonable and Proportionate Requests. Any request for compliance evidence must be reasonable and proportionate to the suspected breach, taking into account scale and allegation specificity.
13.2 Preservation Duty After Notice. Upon written notice of suspected breach, Licensee must preserve records reasonably necessary to verify compliance to the extent permitted by applicable law, and should provide such records in aggregated, anonymized, or redacted form where feasible.
13.3 Written Attestation. Upon reasonable request, Licensee must provide a written attestation describing safeguards used to comply with the Policy, without requiring disclosure of personal data or confidential security details beyond what is reasonably necessary.
13.4 Refusal as Evidence. Refusal to provide reasonable cooperation after credible notice may be treated as evidence supporting an inference of unauthorized use, to the extent permitted by law.
- No Trademark Rights
This License does not grant any rights in the Licensor’s trademarks, service marks, trade names, or branding.
- Disclaimer
THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” LICENSOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
- Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS LICENSE OR THE CONTENT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
- Governing Law and Venue
This License is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
To the extent enforceable, the parties consent to exclusive venue and jurisdiction in the state or federal courts located in Delaware for disputes arising from or relating to this License.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Licensor may seek injunctive or equitable relief, or bring claims for unauthorized use, in any court of competent jurisdiction where the alleged conduct occurs or where a defendant is located, and nothing in this License limits the Licensor’s ability to do so.
If a court determines the Delaware venue provision is unenforceable as to a particular party or claim, venue and jurisdiction will lie in any court of competent jurisdiction that has a reasonable connection to the dispute.
- Severability
If any provision of this License is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force, and the invalid provision will be interpreted to best effectuate the original intent to the maximum extent permitted by law.
- No Waiver
Failure by Licensor to enforce any provision does not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of that or any other provision.
- Acceptance by Conduct
By accessing or using Content that provides notice of this License and a Policy Identifier, Licensee accepts the limitations and conditions of this License to the maximum extent permitted by law. If any portion of this Section 20 is held unenforceable, the grant in Section 4 is void and no rights are granted.
- Interpretation
Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.
Appendix A: Policy Declaration Schema (Illustrative, Non-Binding)
This Appendix is illustrative only and does not expand any rights. Policies must satisfy Section 5 and should conform to the Elthian Policy Declaration schema.
{
"version": "1.0",
"site_id": "example.com",
"timestamp": "2026-01-01T12:00:00Z",
"default_policy": {
"license": "elthian-custom",
"custom_rules": {
"capabilities": {
"allow_training": false,
"allow_inference": true,
"allow_rag": false,
"allow_embedding": true,
"allow_indexing": false,
"allow_search": true,
"allow_product_use": false,
"attribution_required": true,
"embedding_persistence": "ephemeral_only",
"rag_mode": "none",
"output_substitution": "non_substitutive_only",
"search_citations_required": true,
"snippet_max_chars": 600,
"dataset_construction": "prohibited",
"evaluation_benchmarking": "permitted",
"commercial_use": "restricted",
"personal_data_training": "lawful_basis_required",
"derivative_output": "prohibited"
},
"legal_reference": "https://example.com/legal/custom-ai-license-terms",
"machine_readable_policy": "https://example.com/.well-known/elthian-policy.json"
}
},
"scopes": [
{
"pattern": "/blog/",
"match_type": "prefix",
"priority": 50,
"policy": {
"license": "elthian-notrain"
}
}
],
"url_overrides": [
{
"url": "/about/",
"policy": {
"license": "elthian-public"
}
}
],
"metadata": {
"plugin_version": "1.0.0",
"wp_version": "6.4.2",
"php_version": "8.2.12",
"site_timezone": "America/New_York",
"total_posts": 120,
"confidence": "verified"
},
"signature": "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
}
Machine-Readable Metadata (Reference Example)
This is already expressed by the Policy Declaration itself. For convenience, a minimal per-page snippet may reference the controlling licence id and policy:
{
"version": "1.0",
"policy_ref": { "license": "elthian-custom" },
"canonical_url": "https://elthian.com/licensing/elthian-custom-license-v1-0/",
"policy_url": "https://example.com/.well-known/elthian-policy.json"
}