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eleven / ocho Public

docs: GAI Licence v1.1 — fold in the external review's drafting fixes (#868)

Every actionable finding from the July 2026 technical review of v1.0:

- Preamble now says "two additions" (copyleft + disclosure), not one.
- "Publicly available" is defined, and Condition 2 states the source
  obligation ends when distribution stops (finding 1; the world-public
  scope is confirmed deliberate).
- The 🤖 convention is now a versioned Marker Specification
  (docs/ai-markers.md v1.0) referenced from the licence, with a
  plain-text [AI] fallback for ASCII-only pipelines (findings 3, 7).
- Termination cure runs from a copyright holder's notice, not from
  "becoming aware" (finding 7).
- SPDX-style identifier LicenseRef-GAI-1.1 (finding 6).
- Stewardship at a stable URL with version history:
  https://11factor.org/gai-licence (finding 7; page ships in the
  11factor repo's companion PR).
- The note flags GPL-incompatibility both directions (finding 5) and
  records the distribution-only trigger as deliberate — network use
  owes nothing (finding 2, decided: keep the SaaS gap open).
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Paul Campbell e4c05101e58986984e0c9326190ff5262c8e6d22 parent ea50bbe
4 files changed, +110 −30
  • CLAUDE.md +2 −0
  • LICENSE +50 −28
  • README.md +4 −2
  • docs/ai-markers.md +54 −0
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index d4af15d..c9fc5fd 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ decision lives there, not spread through `shell.js`.
Prose in this repo carries an authorship marker, so a reader (human or agent)
can tell who wrote what — and so a human can **fence text off** from AI rewriting.
+(The formal, versioned form of this convention — the one the `LICENSE`'s
+Condition 3 binds — is `docs/ai-markers.md`; keep the two in step.)
- **🤖 — written by an LLM.** Always **visible**, immediately before the heading,
paragraph, or section it applies to (`# 🤖 Title`, or a leading `🤖 ` on a
diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
index 573d330..1a50758 100644
--- a/LICENSE
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
🤖 THE GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LICENCE
(the GAI Licence — pronounced "gay")
-Version 1.0. Based on the MIT Licence, in the spirit of Factor VI of the
-Eleven Factors (https://11factor.org).
+Version 1.1. SPDX-style identifier: LicenseRef-GAI-1.1. Based on the MIT
+Licence, in the spirit of Factor VI of the Eleven Factors
+(https://11factor.org). The canonical text and version history of this
+licence are published at https://11factor.org/gai-licence (the "licence
+URL").
Copyright (c) 2026 Paul Campbell and the Eleven Messenger contributors
@@ -13,9 +16,11 @@ Generative artificial intelligence is trained on the combined knowledge of
all of humanity. Every line it writes is distilled from the accumulated work
of billions of people who contributed their knowledge, writings, and works
in public. What it derives from that inheritance must be returned to
-humanity. This licence is the MIT Licence with one addition: any derivative
-of this work must also be bound by this licence. Any software derived from
-this software must also carry this licence.
+humanity. This licence is the MIT Licence with two additions: any derivative
+of this work that is passed on to others must be passed on open, under this
+licence; and material written by generative artificial intelligence keeps
+its authorship marker. Any software derived from this software must also
+carry this licence.
The Software is a work of all of human authorship combined: humans directed,
selected, arranged, and edited it, whatever tools wrote the lines.
@@ -28,17 +33,28 @@ machine-learned model, however invoked.
"Derivative Work" means a modified version of the Software, or a work
incorporating all or a substantial portion of it. Running or self-hosting
-the Software unmodified, or building a separate work that merely depends on
-it or communicates with it through its interfaces, does not create a
-Derivative Work.
+the Software, modified or not, or building a separate work that merely
+depends on it or communicates with it through its interfaces, does not by
+itself create or Distribute a Derivative Work.
"Distribute" means to give a copy of a work, in source or compiled form, to
any third party.
+"Publicly available" means obtainable by any member of the public at no
+charge and on no conditions beyond this Licence — a public source
+repository, or a complete source archive plainly linked from wherever the
+work is offered, each suffice.
+
"Complete source code" means the preferred form of a work for making
modifications to it, including the scripts needed to build it, but not
secrets, credentials, or signing keys.
+"Marker Specification" means version 1.0 of the AI-authorship marker
+convention distributed with the Software (docs/ai-markers.md) and published
+at the licence URL. In brief: a visible 🤖 — or its plain-text form,
+"[AI]" — marks material written by Generative AI, and a marker on a heading
+covers the material beneath it.
+
TERMS
@@ -54,24 +70,26 @@ furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
2. Owned by humanity. If you Distribute a Derivative Work, you must:
- (a) make its complete source code publicly available at no charge, for
- as long as you Distribute it; and (b) license it under this Licence.
- The commons wrote it with you; when you pass it on, it returns to the
- commons.
+ (a) make its complete source code Publicly available for as long as you
+ continue to Distribute it — the obligation ends when you stop; and
+ (b) license it under this Licence. The commons wrote it with you; when
+ you pass it on, it returns to the commons.
3. Disclosure. In source form, copies and Derivative Works must preserve
- the AI-authorship markers the Software carries (the 🤖 convention) on
- material they still accurately describe; a marker may be removed where a
- human has substantially rewritten the material it marks. Material in the
- Software or a Derivative Work written by Generative AI must not be
- affirmatively presented as human-written — the absence of a marker is
- not such a claim. Compiled or minified artifacts need not carry markers.
+ the AI-authorship markers the Software carries, as defined by the Marker
+ Specification, on material they still accurately describe; a marker may
+ be removed where a human has substantially rewritten the material it
+ marks. Material in the Software or a Derivative Work written by
+ Generative AI must not be affirmatively presented as human-written — the
+ absence of a marker is not such a claim. Compiled or minified artifacts
+ need not carry markers.
This Licence terminates automatically if you materially breach it and fail
-to cure the breach within 30 days of becoming aware of it; it is reinstated
-in full on cure. The Eleven Messenger project stewards this licence and may
-publish new versions; the Software is licensed under this version only
-unless the copyright holders state otherwise.
+to cure the breach within 30 days after a copyright holder notifies you of
+it; it is reinstated in full on cure. The Eleven Messenger project stewards
+this licence and may publish new versions at the licence URL; the Software
+is licensed under this version only unless the copyright holders state
+otherwise.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
@@ -85,13 +103,17 @@ SOFTWARE.
A NOTE, PLAINLY (not part of the terms)
Condition 2 makes this a different licence from MIT — do not describe
-software under it as "MIT-licensed", and note it has not been through OSI
-review. The share-alike follows the work, not your tools: whether you extend
-the Software by hand or with Generative AI, a Derivative Work you give to
+software under it as "MIT-licensed". It has not been through OSI review,
+and it is not compatible with the GPL family in either direction: its
+conditions are "further restrictions" there, and the GPL's are here. The
+share-alike follows the work, not your tools: whether you extend the
+Software by hand or with Generative AI, a Derivative Work you give to
others stays open under this licence, because this software's own lines were
distilled from humanity's commons and no one downstream may fence off that
inheritance. Nothing here restricts what you do in private — use it, change
it, keep it to yourself; the obligation begins only when you Distribute.
-And yes — this licence was itself written by a generative artificial
-intelligence, on the ideas, instruction, and editing of humans, which is
-why it opens with a 🤖.
+That trigger is deliberate: running the Software, or a Derivative Work, as
+a service for others is use, not Distribution, and owes nothing back — this
+licence polices passing the work on, not running it. And yes — this licence
+was itself written by a generative artificial intelligence, on the ideas,
+instruction, and editing of humans, which is why it opens with a 🤖.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 68ad4c8..f089220 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -385,8 +385,10 @@ docs/*.md design notes (router, threads/DMs, push relay, mini-apps,
## Licence
[The GAI Licence](LICENSE) — the **Generative Artificial Intelligence
-Licence** (pronounced "gay"): the MIT Licence with one addition, in the
+Licence** (pronounced "gay"): the MIT Licence with two additions, in the
spirit of [the Eleven Factors](https://11factor.org). Generative AI is
trained on the combined knowledge of all of humanity, so what it derives
must be returned to humanity: any derivative you distribute stays open,
-bound by this same licence — and AI-written material keeps its 🤖 marker.
+bound by this same licence — and AI-written material keeps its 🤖 marker
+(spec: [docs/ai-markers.md](docs/ai-markers.md)). Canonical text and
+version history: https://11factor.org/gai-licence.
diff --git a/docs/ai-markers.md b/docs/ai-markers.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea231d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/ai-markers.md
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# 🤖 AI-authorship markers — specification, version 1.0
+
+This is the Marker Specification referenced by Condition 3 of the GAI
+Licence (`LICENSE`): the convention for marking material written by
+generative AI. It is versioned; the licence names the version that binds
+it. The canonical copy travels with the Software as this file and is also
+published at https://11factor.org/gai-licence. (A friendlier working-notes
+form of the same convention lives in `CLAUDE.md § Who wrote this` — this
+file is the one the licence points at.)
+
+## The marker
+
+- **🤖 marks AI-written material.** The marker is always **visible** in the
+ rendered or source form — never hidden in a comment — and sits immediately
+ before the heading, paragraph, or section it applies to (`# 🤖 Title`, or
+ a leading `🤖 ` on a paragraph; in code, a `🤖` in the comment block that
+ heads a file or section).
+- **Plain-text fallback:** where the emoji cannot survive — ASCII-only
+ pipelines, encodings, or tooling — the string `[AI]` in the same position
+ is an equivalent marker. The canonical files themselves stay UTF-8 with
+ the emoji form.
+- **A marker on a heading cascades:** it covers that heading and everything
+ beneath it — sub-headings, paragraphs, lists — down to the next marker of
+ the same-or-higher level or a human-certified block. One 🤖 on a
+ document's top heading marks the whole document.
+
+## What the absence of a marker means
+
+Nothing. Unmarked material is **ambiguous** — it could be human- or
+AI-written. The absence of a marker is never a claim of human authorship;
+only an affirmative statement is.
+
+## Human certification
+
+A person emoji (👨 / 👤 / 🧑 …) marks material written or vetted by a
+person. In HTML or Markdown the person marker may be hidden in a comment
+(`<!-- 👨 -->`) so it doesn't render; the 🤖 marker must never be hidden.
+
+## Preserving and removing markers (what Condition 3 binds)
+
+- Copies and Derivative Works in source form **preserve** the markers they
+ carry on material the markers still accurately describe.
+- A marker **may be removed** where a human has substantially rewritten the
+ material it marks — the marker described the old text, not the new.
+- New AI-written material in a Derivative Work **should** be marked the same
+ way; what Condition 3 *requires* is narrower: AI-written material must not
+ be affirmatively presented as human-written.
+- **Compiled or minified artifacts** need not carry markers.
+
+## Versioning
+
+Changes to this specification bump its version number; the GAI Licence
+binds the version it names, and the version history is published alongside
+the licence's at https://11factor.org/gai-licence.