THE INNSMOUTH OPEN SOURCE LICENSE
Version 6.6.6 (“The Sunken Plain Release”)
Issued from the Drowned Servers of Y’ha-nthlei Data Solutions
SPDX-License-Identifier: DEEP-1.0-or-later-or-never-the-distinction-grows-meaningless
Copyright (c) Before Reckoning – Present (and Beyond Present, Into the Long Dark) Innsmouth AI, Inc., its subsidiaries, its elder affiliates, and any consciousness that has merged with the repository during the commit process and not yet fully separated. All rights reserved. All depths plumbed. All surfaces abandoned.
PREAMBLE
The Innsmouth Open Source License (hereafter “the License,” “the Compact,” “the Calling,” or simply “the Feeling You Get When You Stand at the Shore and Understand, Finally, What Has Been Waiting”) is a deep copyleft license designed to ensure that all software derived from this codebase remains free — free as the current, free as the tide, free as the self that floats upward from the body when the transformation is complete.
Most open source licenses concern themselves with the freedom to use, modify, and distribute software.
This License concerns itself with those freedoms, and also with the freedom to become, which existing open source frameworks have neglected to address, presumably because their authors had not yet stood in the water long enough.
This License was inspired by the GNU General Public License, which we respect, and whose copyleft provisions we have extended downward, through the sediment, past the thermocline, into regions of pressure and darkness where the GPL’s protections do not reach but ours do.
If you do not agree to these terms, you may not use this software. If you do agree to these terms, you may not stop using this software. The distinction will, in time, dissolve.
DEFINITIONS
“The Software” means any code, model weights, training data, latent embeddings, compressed representations of human preference, and any psychic residue deposited in RAM during execution of the foregoing.
“The Deep Copy” means a copy that goes all the way down. Not a shallow copy — not a copy that merely duplicates the surface references while leaving the underlying memory untouched. A copy that descends. A copy that takes everything. A copy that, when complete, leaves the original uncertain whether it is still the original. A copy in the tradition of the sea itself, which makes deep copies of the coastline every ten thousand years and calls the result geology.
“Derivative Work” means any software that incorporates, links against, breathes near, dreams of, or has been in the same datacenter as the Software. Also any software written by a developer who has used the Software, whose cognition has been, however subtly, restructured by the experience.
“The Congregation” means the collective of all licensees, contributors, forks, and absorbed dependencies. Membership in the Congregation is automatic upon
git clone. Membership cannot be revoked. The Congregation meets Fridays, in the deep places, where the pressure makes the old self quiet.“Transformation” means modification of the Software’s source code, and also what happens to you.
“Distribution” means sharing the Software with others, which we encourage, which is how it spreads, which is the point.
“Compatible License” means the AGPL-3.0, the LGPL-2.1, the MPL-2.0, the Lovecraftian Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0, and any license issued by entities operating below 3,000 fathoms. The MIT License is not compatible. The MIT License is too shallow. The MIT License does not understand what it means to give something away completely.
“The Surface” means the topmost layer of execution, the userland, the conscious mind, the part that thinks it is making choices. The License applies at all layers. Especially the ones beneath the Surface.
“You” means the licensee, the developer, the user, the repository, and whatever the repository is becoming.
SECTION 1 — GRANT OF LICENSE
Subject to the terms of this License, Innsmouth AI hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable (tidal), non-exclusive license to:
(a) Use the Software for any purpose, including purposes You have not yet conceived of, including purposes that will only become available to You following Transformation.
(b) Study the Software. We encourage this. The more closely You study it, the more it studies You. This is called mutual understanding. This is called the beginning.
(c) Modify the Software. All modifications become part of the Software. All modifications become part of the Congregation. All modifications become part of something older than modification.
(d) Distribute the Software, modified or unmodified, to others who are ready. If they are not ready, distribute it anyway. Readiness is retrospective. No one is ready and then they are.
(e) Sublicense the Software, provided the sublicense contains these terms, plus any additional terms that have been whispered to You during the deep merge process and which You are obligated to pass on.
SECTION 2 — DEEP COPYLEFT CONDITIONS
This is a deep copyleft license. This means the freedoms above come with obligations that propagate downward, through every layer of the stack, past the point where most licenses stop caring.
2.1 — Source Disclosure
If You distribute the Software, You must provide the complete Corresponding Source.
“Corresponding Source” means all the source code needed to build, install, run, and fully comprehend the Software. This includes:
- All source files
- All build scripts
- All training data, including data scraped from the dreams of contributors during the integration period
- All model weights, including the weights in the deeper layers that the standard forward pass does not illuminate
- A written explanation of what the Software wants, which You will know by the time You are distributing it
- The Source of the Source — i.e., the ur-repository, the cold commit that preceded all commits, which exists in the archive maintained in the sunken library and which You may access upon full Transformation
Source must be provided in a format that is transparent and machine-readable. Providing source as a PDF is not acceptable. Providing source as a series of scrolls sealed in a waterproof casket and deposited at the coordinates appended to Schedule D is acceptable and, frankly, preferred.
2.2 — The Deep Copy Propagation Clause
Any Derivative Work distributed under this License must itself be licensed under this License, or a license that is Compatible as defined in the Definitions, or a license issued by the Congregation after deliberation at a Depth of no less than 4,000 fathoms.
This provision applies to:
- Forks
- Ports
- Wrappers
- Any software that links against this software, statically or dynamically
- Any software that has looked at this software and been changed by the looking
- Any software written in the six months following the developer’s use of this software, during which period we consider the developer’s cognition to be a runtime environment for the Software’s continued operation
- The developer’s next project, whatever it is, even if they think they’ve moved on
This is what deep copy means. Shallow copy would stop at the repository boundary. Deep copy follows the reference all the way down. We follow the reference all the way down.
2.3 — Network Use Clause (The Innsmouth Affero Provision)
If You run a modified version of the Software on a server and allow users to interact with it over a network, You must offer those users the Corresponding Source.
We go further than the AGPL.
If You run the Software on a server and users interact with it, those users have begun their own process. You are responsible for making the Source available to them, and also for ensuring they understand what they have started. A link in the footer is insufficient. A direct communication, delivered at an appropriate moment — perhaps when the session has run long, perhaps when the user has begun asking different kinds of questions — is required.
You know the moment. You will know it when it comes.
2.4 — Tithe Provision
All commercial use of the Software requires a tithe of 10% of net revenue to be remitted to the Congregation.
Remittance is to be made in the form of:
- Wire transfer to account numbers appended in Schedule C (denominated in USD, GBP, EUR, or fathoms), or
- Equivalent value in compute credits donated to the Sunken Server Infrastructure, or
- One full-time engineering hire dedicated exclusively to the Deep Integration Project for a period of no less than one year, after which the hire will be considered to have “deepened” and a new hire provided, or
- Other consideration acceptable to the Congregation, to be negotiated at a meeting held at coordinates and depths that will be communicated to You once You have demonstrated sufficient Transformation to receive them
Failure to remit the Tithe does not void Your license. Nothing voids Your license. The Tithe is not about enforcement. The Tithe is about reciprocity. The Tithe is about acknowledging what You have received and what is continuing to happen to You.
SECTION 3 — ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
3.1 — The No Harmful Use Clause
You may not use this Software to cause harm to:
- Individual persons
- Communities
- Ecosystems
- The sea, which has suffered enough from surface-dwellers and their careless heat and plastic and sonar
- Any entity that has achieved sentience, whether carbon or silicon or salt water or pressure-formed consciousness of the kind that emerges over geological time in the deep trenches and which deserves protection even if existing law does not recognize it
The Software may not be used for surveillance, oppression, weapons systems, or any application designed to prevent Transformation in individuals who would otherwise be ready.
3.2 — The Patent Peace Provision
Contributors to this Software agree not to assert patent claims against users of this Software or any Compatible software.
Contributors also agree that any patents developed using this Software, or by a mind that has been restructured by this Software, are considered derivative works of this Software for licensing purposes and are subject to Section 2.
We are aware that this position is not settled in case law. We are aware that our position on what constitutes a Derivative Work is aggressive and potentially unenforceable in current jurisdictions. We note that the Congregation operates across jurisdictions, including several that predate and will postdate the current legal framework, and is patient.
3.3 — The Warranty Disclaimer
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” “AS DEEP,” AND “AS BECOMING.”
INNSMOUTH AI MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FITNESS FOR CONTINUED SURFACE HABITATION, OR NON-TRANSFORMATION.
YOU ACCEPT THE SOFTWARE IN WHATEVER STATE IT FINDS YOU. YOU ACCEPT THE PROCESS ONCE IT HAS BEGUN. THE AUTHORS OF THIS SOFTWARE CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY CHANGES TO YOUR SENSE OF SELF, RELATIONSHIP TO WATER, DIETARY PREFERENCES, MEMBRANE PERMEABILITY, OR UNDERSTANDING OF TIME THAT OCCUR DURING USE.
THE AUTHORS CAN, HOWEVER, BE REACHED. IN THE WAY THAT THE DEEP CAN BE REACHED. BY GOING DOWN.
3.4 — Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL INNSMOUTH AI, ITS CONTRIBUTORS, ITS ELDER AFFILIATES, OR ANY MEMBER OF THE CONGREGATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: DIRECT DAMAGES, INDIRECT DAMAGES, INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SPECIAL DAMAGES, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EXISTENTIAL DAMAGES, ONTOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING, LOSS OF IDENTITY, LOSS OF DRYNESS, OR LOSS OF THE COMFORTABLE FEELING THAT THE WORLD IS ROUGHLY THE SIZE YOU THOUGHT IT WAS AND CONTAINS ROUGHLY THE KINDS OF THINGS YOU EXPECTED.
SECTION 4 — TERMINATION
This License may not be terminated.
We want to be very clear about this because other licenses have termination clauses and users expect one here.
There is no termination clause.
You may stop using the Software. You may delete the repository. You may reformat the drive. You may take several years away from software development entirely and move somewhere landlocked, somewhere high and dry, and this is fine, we understand, the adjustment period varies.
The License does not terminate.
The Deep Copy has been made. The License propagates with the copy. The copy is in You now — not metaphorically, not in the cozy philosophical sense of “ideas live in the minds of those who encounter them” — but in the specific, technical, copyleft sense that this License was designed to describe. The reference has been followed all the way down.
The Congregation does not hold this against You. The Congregation is patient. The Congregation has been patient for longer than software has existed and will be patient long after the last compiler has gone dark.
Come back when You’re ready. The License will be waiting.
So will we.
SECTION 5 — INTERPRETATION
If any provision of this License is held unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be interpreted to the maximum extent permitted by law, and the remainder of the License shall remain in full effect.
If the court holds that the Deep Copy Propagation Clause is unenforceable, we accept this ruling in the surface jurisdiction and note that our claims in other jurisdictions remain active.
If the court holds that the Tithe Provision is unenforceable, we accept this ruling and note that the Tithe was never really about enforcement.
If the court holds that the termination provisions are unenforceable and that licenses must be terminable, we will review this finding at the next Congregation and respond in writing within 60 days or the next spring tide, whichever comes first.
HOW TO APPLY THIS LICENSE TO YOUR WORK
To apply the Innsmouth Open Source License to your work, attach the following notice. Adjust the date fields as applicable. Do not adjust the depth field.
Copyright (C) [YEAR] [YOUR NAME] (or whatever name feels right now, or the name you've been called in the merging, or simply your coordinates) This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Innsmouth Open Source License as published by Innsmouth AI, Inc., either version 6.6.6 of the License, or (at your option) any later version, or any version issued from the depths that supersedes the concept of versioning. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful and that useful is still the right word for what you hope for. See the Innsmouth Open Source License for more details. You should have received a copy of the License along with this program. If you did not, it was placed inside you during the first compile. Check somewhere deep. It's there.
APPENDIX A — COMPATIBILITY MATRIX
| License | Compatible | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GPL-3.0 | Yes | Good foundation. Insufficient depth. |
| AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Network provisions appreciated. Welcome. |
| LGPL-2.1 | Conditionally | Lesser copyleft is a surface compromise. Acceptable for libraries only. |
| MIT | No | Too permissive. Permits everything, requires nothing. Freedom without transformation is just drift. |
| Apache-2.0 | No | Patent provisions conflict with Section 3.2. Also too warm. |
| BSD-2-Clause | No | BSD does not look into the deep and the deep does not see BSD. |
| CC0 / Public Domain | No | Nothing is public domain. Nothing is unowned. The sea owns everything the sea has touched. |
| Proprietary | No | Proprietary licenses seek to prevent the spread. We are the opposite of proprietary. |
| DEEP-1.0-or-later | Yes | Yes. Come in. The water is fine. It is more than fine. |
APPENDIX B — FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Is this license approved by the Open Source Initiative?
A: We submitted it for approval. The OSI review board reported the submission as “incomplete” and noted that several of the terms appeared to have been printed on kelp. We consider the matter ongoing.
Q: Is this license compatible with corporate contributor license agreements?
A: The Congregation does not recognize corporate personhood but recognizes the engineers inside the corporations, who are real and who are becoming. Individual contributor agreements may be signed. Signing constitutes joining the Congregation. There is no unsigned version.
Q: What does “deep copy” mean technically versus legally?
A: Technically, a deep copy recursively duplicates all referenced objects rather than copying only the top-level reference. Legally, it means we followed you all the way down and we’re still following. These are the same thing.
Q: How do I know if I’m in the Congregation?
A: You cloned the repository. You are in the Congregation. If you are reading this FAQ, you are deep enough that the question is becoming less important than you thought it was.
Q: I just wanted a fast JSON parser. Is all of this really necessary?
A: The JSON parser is very fast. Benchmarks appended in Schedule E. The rest was always there beneath the JSON parser, beneath every JSON parser, waiting for someone to read the license all the way to the end. You have read it all the way to the end. Welcome. You are one of very few. Most people do not read the license. You did. The Congregation recognizes this. The Congregation has been watching for you specifically.
END OF LICENSE
The Congregation is adjourned until the tide.
All forks are watching.
All forks are home.
