copyleft
Enable an AI agent to recognise copyleft, assess its application to a work and proposed activity, and identify permissions, reciprocal obligations and unresolved conditions before acting.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise copyleft, assess its application to a work and proposed activity, and identify permissions, reciprocal obligations and unresolved conditions before acting.
It can be Recognise a reciprocal licensing mechanism and identify its governing text.; Trace potentially covered material through modification, combination and transfer scenarios.; Evaluate which obligations a proposed activity may activate.; Prepare a licence-specific fulfilment checklist and inspect supporting evidence.; Compare licensing routes, exceptions and changes to a proposed arrangement.; Flag unresolved interpretation or missing evidence before recommending an action..
Distinguishing features
Identify a condition requiring specified freedoms or licence terms to persist in covered downstream material; permission to copy or modify alone does not establish copyleft.
Distinguish reciprocal licensing requirements from attribution, notice preservation or source visibility alone.
Identify the material to which reciprocity extends rather than treating every dependency, neighbouring file or distributed component as covered.
Identify the activity that activates each condition rather than assuming possession, private modification, distribution and remote interaction have equivalent effects.
Distinguish copyleft from public-domain status and from restrictions on commercial use or fields of endeavour.
Scope
+ Identification of reciprocal licensing conditions in an exact licence text and version
+ Material and relationships potentially within the reciprocal condition's reach
+ Activities that may activate obligations, including transfer and network interaction where specified
+ Required licensing, source availability, notices and supporting materials
+ Compatibility, exceptions and evidence supporting a proposed course of action
- The complete legal identity and lifecycle of a copyright licence
- Copyright ownership, authorship and chain of title
- General open-source or free-software classification
- Software architecture, dependency management and build engineering beyond evidence needed to assess copyleft
- Litigation, remedies and jurisdiction-wide legal interpretation
Characteristics
- Governing licence expression
- Exact licence text, version, version-selection permission and applicable exceptions or additional permissions An informal licence name cannot establish the operative conditions.
- Reciprocity classification
- File-scoped, library-oriented, broader-work, network-conditioned, other or unresolved; labels require supporting scope rules Summarises the mechanism without substituting a strength label for an applicability assessment.
- Covered material
- Identified works, portions, modifications and combinations with inclusion or exclusion rationale Determines which material a reciprocal obligation concerns.
- Activation assessment
- Not assessed, no identified trigger, potentially triggered, triggered or disputed, for a specified activity Obligations must be evaluated against an actual or proposed activity.
- Required source and supporting material
- Licence-defined source material and any required scripts, instructions or other supporting material A repository link alone may not establish that the required material is available.
- Fulfilment state
- Unassessed, evidence incomplete, satisfied for assessed activity, unmet or disputed Separates identified duties from evidence that they have been performed.
- Compatibility assessment
- Unassessed, supported, conditional, conflicting or unresolved for a specified combination and licensing route Compatibility depends on the concrete terms and intended arrangement.
- Time-bound duty
- Duration or deadline in the governing terms, with units and start event; absent or unresolved where appropriate Some fulfilment routes require availability or responses over a specified period.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 5 bundles · 10 layers · 10 findings · 22 questions.
Reciprocity basis Establishes what makes the mechanism copyleft and which terms govern its application.
An agent must distinguish operative reciprocal conditions from labels and general permission statements.
Reciprocal condition
Identifies the permission conditioned on preserving specified downstream freedoms.
Operative reciprocity
Records the clause connecting an allowed activity to a reciprocal requirement.
- Which clause requires specified freedoms or licence terms to persist in covered material? definition
- What distinguishes this clause from attribution, source visibility or a restriction on permitted uses? boundary
Applicable terms
Resolves the exact text, version choices and modifications to the reciprocal condition.
Licence version and exceptions
Records evidence for the governing licence expression, including exceptions and selectable alternatives.
- Which notices and licence texts establish the applicable version and any permission to select another version? provenance
- Which exceptions, additional permissions or alternative licences apply to this material and proposed activity? boundary
Reciprocal reach Determines the material potentially subject to reciprocal conditions.
Copyleft cannot be assessed by assuming either that every neighbouring work is covered or that only the original files matter.
Covered work and modifications
Identifies the licensed material and changes relevant to its coverage.
Material lineage
Connects originals, copied portions and modifications to the applicable terms.
- Which portions of the assessed work originate in material carrying the reciprocal condition? provenance
- Which additions or changes are covered under the governing terms, and which remain unresolved? boundary
Combination boundaries
Examines relationships between covered material and other works without deciding scope from technical labels alone.
Combination assessment
Records the technical arrangement and the basis for including or excluding other material.
- How are the works combined or connected through copying, linking, loading, generation, packaging or communication? definition
- What licence language and applicable interpretation support treating the arrangement as covered, separate or unresolved? boundary
Activation context Connects actual or proposed activities to the conditions they may activate.
The same material can require different actions depending on how it is modified, supplied or made available.
Transfer and recipients
Examines whether supplying material activates reciprocal duties and to whom they are owed.
Transfer trigger
Records the supplied material, parties and licence-defined trigger.
- What source, executable or other covered material is supplied, by whom and to whom? definition
- Does this activity meet the governing terms' trigger for distribution, conveyance or another relevant form of supply? boundary
Remote use and private activity
Tests remote interaction and non-transfer activities against explicit licence conditions.
Network and modification trigger
Determines whether modification or remote interaction introduces duties in the assessed scenario.
- Do the applicable terms contain a remote-interaction condition, and what facts must hold for it to apply? boundary
- What duties, if any, do the terms attach to the proposed private use, modification or network operation? action
Reciprocal fulfilment Identifies the materials, permissions and delivery steps needed to satisfy activated conditions.
Recognising copyleft is insufficient unless an agent can determine what must accompany the permitted activity.
Source and delivery
Determines required source material and the permitted means of making it available.
Required material and access
Records the licence-defined source package, recipients, delivery route and any time-bound duties.
- What source and supporting material do the applicable terms require for the specific supplied or operated version? definition
- Who must receive access, by what permitted route and for what duration or deadline? action
- What evidence shows that the available material matches the assessed version and contains the required components? provenance
Downstream permissions and notices
Identifies licence propagation, notices and restrictions affecting recipients' exercise of required freedoms.
Recipient freedoms
Records the terms and accompanying information that must reach recipients.
- Which licence terms, copyright notices, modification notices and other statements must accompany the covered material? action
- Do proposed contractual or technical conditions conflict with freedoms that the governing terms require recipients to receive? boundary
Permitted path and assurance Assesses feasible licensing routes and the evidence supporting a decision to proceed.
An agent needs a case-specific action decision that accounts for conflicting terms, incomplete fulfilment and unresolved interpretation.
Compatibility and alternatives
Tests whether all applicable obligations can be satisfied together.
Jointly satisfiable terms
Records conflicts and supported routes through version selection, exceptions or alternative permissions.
- Can the obligations of every relevant licence be satisfied for this specific combination, activity and proposed outbound terms? boundary
- Which evidenced version choice, exception, alternative permission or change to the arrangement would resolve an identified conflict? action
Fulfilment and permission state
Separates fulfilled duties, missing evidence and questions about continuing permission.
Action readiness
Records whether the assessed action has a supported path and what must happen before proceeding.
- Which activated duties have evidence of fulfilment, and which are unmet, disputed or unassessed? measurement
- If a condition was breached, what do the exact terms establish about termination, cure or reinstatement, and what remains unresolved? boundary
- What concrete fulfilment step, additional permission or interpretive review is needed before the proposed activity can proceed? action
What the second pass must settle
- Which operational definition of copyleft should this registry adopt for borderline reciprocal licences, including licences for documentation, media and data?
- Which licence families and versions must be researched before the model's coverage categories can be treated as adequate?
- How should jurisdiction-dependent boundaries for modifications and combined works be represented without turning technical relationships into unsupported legal conclusions?
- What evidence is sufficient to establish fulfilment of source availability and supporting-material duties for each relevant licence and delivery route?
- How should the registry divide responsibility between this copyleft model and neighbouring licence, copyright, work and compliance models?