Name: Elthian-UseOnly License (the “License”)
Version: 1.0
Licensor: The party publishing the Content with a reference to this License (the “Licensor”).
License Steward: Elthian LLC (Delaware), as publisher of the canonical license text and identifiers.
Canonical URL: https://elthian.com/licensing/elthian-useonly-license-v1-0/
Effective Date: The date the Content is first made available with a reference to this License.
1. Purpose and Intent
This License permits limited AI access to the Content solely to assist a human user (for example, internal copilots or human-in-the-loop tools), while prohibiting Training, persistent representations, RAG intended to generate user-facing outputs, and any Derivative AI Output. The core intent is: AI may consume the Content, but may not express it.
2. Definitions
The following definitions apply:
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 inference, generation, summarization, embedding, clustering, classification, ranking, retrieval augmentation, or training using algorithmic, statistical, machine learning, neural network, or similar techniques.
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, or otherwise influence the parameters, weights, internal representations, routing, memory, or behavior of an AI System, including pretraining, fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, preference learning, supervised learning, self-supervised learning, evaluation, benchmarking, data labeling for model development, and dataset construction.
2.5 “Inference” means processing Content at run time to produce outputs, including answers, summaries, classifications, 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 “Human-in-the-Loop Assistance” means an AI System’s processing of the Content where: (a) the output is intended solely to assist a human user’s decision-making, and (b) the AI System’s outputs do not reproduce or paraphrase the Content’s expressive elements beyond minimal non-substitutive indicators.
2.10 “Derivative AI Output” means any output that reproduces, paraphrases, summarizes, imitates, transforms, or otherwise reflects protected expressive elements of the Content, including output that materially substitutes for the Content.
2.11 “Permitted Assistance Output” means output that: (a) does not reproduce or paraphrase Content, (b) does not present a summary or translation of Content, and (c) is limited to high-level, non-expressive guidance such as: “This document covers X and Y,” “See section 3,” “Relevant page appears to be…,” or similar navigational or categorical indicators. A Permitted Assistance Output must not exceed 60 words per user request and must not include direct quotations from the Content.
2.12 “Ephemeral Processing Copy” means a transient copy and/or Embedding generated solely to provide Human-in-the-Loop Assistance for a specific user request, which is deleted promptly after the request is fulfilled and is not reused across users, sessions, products, or time.
2.13 “Licensee” means any individual or entity that engages in Automated Access, or deploys, operates, provides, or controls an AI System that engages in Automated Access.
2.14 “Human Access” means access by a natural person using a standard web browser or comparable interactive user agent, without Automated Access.
2.15 “Incidental Technical Copying” means transient copies made solely as a necessary technical step in ordinary network transmission or browser rendering for Human Access, provided such copying is not used for Training, persistent Embedding, RAG for generation, Product Use beyond assistance, or Derivative AI Output.
3. License Grant (Limited Human-in-the-Loop Assistance)
3.1 Grant. Subject to full compliance with this License, Licensor grants Licensee a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to perform Automated Access of the Content solely for Human-in-the-Loop Assistance.
3.2 Scope Limitation. The grant includes only the minimum rights necessary to: (a) retrieve the Content to answer a user’s specific request for assistance, and (b) generate a Permitted Assistance Output.
3.3 No Other Rights. No rights are granted for Training, AI Search indexing, RAG intended to generate user-facing content, persistent Embeddings, dataset construction, publication, republishing, or Derivative AI Output.
4. Permitted Uses (Strict Conditions)
AI Systems may, solely for Human-in-the-Loop Assistance:
4.1 Request-Bound Retrieval. Retrieve Content only in response to a specific, contemporaneous request from a human user.
4.2 Ephemeral Processing. Create Ephemeral Processing Copies strictly necessary to fulfil the user request and delete them promptly upon completion.
4.3 Navigational Guidance Only. Provide Permitted Assistance Output limited to navigation, categorization, and non-expressive guidance.
4.4 No Display Substitution. The AI System must not display, render, or present the Content itself, or a summary/translation/paraphrase of it, to the user.
4.5 Source Linking (Where Public). Where a public URL exists, any guidance must include a direct link to the original Content so the user can view it directly.
5. Prohibited Uses (Not Exhaustive)
Licensee must not, and must not enable any third party to:
5.1 Train. Use Content for Training of any AI System.
5.2 Search and Indexing. Index, rank, classify, label, or otherwise process Content for AI Search or answer engines.
5.3 Persistent Embeddings. Store, reuse, or retain any Embedding derived from Content beyond an Ephemeral Processing Copy.
5.4 Dataset Construction. Include Content, Embeddings, or derived representations in any dataset, corpus, benchmark, evaluation set, prompt library, or curated collection intended for AI development or scaling.
5.5 RAG for Generation. Use Content in RAG pipelines intended to generate user-facing answers, summaries, rewrites, translations, or other Derivative AI Output.
5.6 Derivative AI Output. Generate Derivative AI Output beyond the strict Permitted Assistance Output.
5.7 Product Use Beyond Assistance. Use Content as a feature input, knowledge base, training substrate, or monetized functionality in any AI-enabled product beyond request-bound Human-in-the-Loop Assistance.
5.8 Internal Use as Backdoor. Claim “internal-only” use to justify prohibited Training, persistent Embeddings, dataset creation, or generation of Derivative AI Output.
6. 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 output limits, retention limits, or detection.
6.2 No “Ephemeral” Pretext. Repeated Ephemeral Processing Copies that approximate persistent storage, indexing, or continuous product functionality are prohibited.
6.3 No Session Stitching. Stitching together multiple user sessions to build a persistent representation, index, or dataset is prohibited.
6.4 No Reassembly. Any attempt to reconstruct, recompose, or approximate the Content through multiple accesses, output fragments, or derived signals is prohibited.
6.5 No Proxy Laundering. Obtaining Content through intermediaries or third parties as a means to circumvent this License is prohibited.
7. Human Access and Incidental Technical Copying
7.1 Human Access Allowed. Human Access remains unaffected.
7.2 Incidental Technical Copying Allowed. Incidental Technical Copying is permitted only where it does not enable prohibited AI use.
7.3 No Agentic Browsing. Using headless browsers, browser automation, synthetic users, or agent-driven browsing to obtain Content for AI processing outside the strict scope of Section 4 constitutes a breach.
8. Notice, Metadata, and Technical Signals
8.1 Signals Are Complementary. robots.txt, headers, meta tags, structured data, and sitemaps may signal the presence and terms of this License. Absence of one signal does not waive the License where notice exists.
8.2 Most Restrictive Applies. If technical directives conflict, the most restrictive interpretation consistent with this License applies.
9. Termination
9.1 Automatic Termination. Any violation terminates the rights granted under Section 3 immediately.
9.2 Cessation Duty. Upon termination, Licensee must cease Automated Access of the Content and delete any Ephemeral Processing Copies retained beyond permitted scope.
9.3 No Rights by Cure. Curing a breach does not grant rights not expressly granted.
10. Compliance Evidence and Cooperation
10.1 Preservation Duty After Notice. Upon written notice of suspected breach, Licensee must preserve relevant non-personal records reasonably necessary to verify compliance (including retention policies and access logs).
10.2 Written Attestation. Upon reasonable request, Licensee must provide a written attestation describing safeguards used to prevent Training, RAG for generation, persistent Embeddings, and Derivative AI Output.
10.3 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.
11. Remedies
11.1 Injunctive Relief. Unauthorized use may cause irreparable harm. Licensor may seek injunctive or equitable relief.
11.2 Statutory Rights. This License does not limit remedies available under copyright law.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Governing Law and Venue
This License is governed by Delaware law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The parties consent to exclusive venue and jurisdiction in state or federal courts located in Delaware for disputes arising from or relating to this License, subject to the Licensor’s right to seek injunctive relief in any jurisdiction where breach occurs.
15. Severability
If any provision 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.
16. No Waiver
Failure by Licensor to enforce any provision does not constitute a waiver.
17. Acceptance by Conduct
By engaging in Automated Access to Content that provides notice of this License, Licensee accepts the limitations and conditions of this License to the maximum extent permitted by law. This acceptance clause supplements, and does not replace, Licensor’s rights under copyright law.
18. License Steward Liability Waiver
The License Steward provides this framework as a template only and assumes no liability for adoptions or disputes.
Machine-Readable Metadata (reference example)
{
"aiUse": "useOnly",
"license": "https://elthianlabs.com/licenses/useonly"}