[License-review] [SUBMISSION] AI-MIT License 1.0 — permissive license for AI-generated code
Nik
nik.sharky at gmail.com
Fri Mar 13 00:30:57 UTC 2026
Dear OSI License Review Committee,
I am submitting the AI-MIT License, Version 1.0 for OSI approval. The full
license text is attached to this email as a plain text file
(AI-MIT-License-1.0.txt).
Per the submission requirements at
https://opensource.org/licenses/review-process, I provide the following
information.
1. LICENSE NAME AND IDENTIFIER
Full name: AI-MIT License 1.0
Short name: AI-MIT-1.0
Steward: [Nik / GitHub organization ai-mit-license]
Contact: [nik.sharky at gmail.com]
Repository: https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license
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2. OSD COMPLIANCE — AFFIRMATIVE STATEMENT
I affirm that the AI-MIT License 1.0 complies with all ten criteria of the
Open
Source Definition. Specific affirmations for the historically problematic
criteria:
OSD #3 — Derived Works
The license permits modification and redistribution of derived works
without
restriction. No conditions are placed on derived works beyond attribution
(preserving the Authorship Declaration and license notice) — identical in
scope to the standard MIT attribution requirement.
✓ COMPLIANT
OSD #5 — No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license contains no restrictions based on identity, group membership,
or any personal characteristic.
✓ COMPLIANT
OSD #6 — No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The Transparency condition (Condition 2) requires that redistribution not
misrepresent AI-generated code as human-authored. This is an honesty/
attribution requirement — equivalent in nature to the MIT attribution
requirement — and does not restrict use in any field of endeavor. It
applies identically to all users regardless of their domain of use.
✓ COMPLIANT
OSD #9 — License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license contains no provisions affecting software distributed
alongside
the licensed work. It is a per-work license with no reach-through effects.
✓ COMPLIANT
Full OSD analysis (all 10 criteria):
#1 Free Redistribution ✓ No restriction on sale or distribution
#2 Source Code ✓ No source code restriction
#3 Derived Works ✓ Modification and redistribution
permitted
#4 Integrity of Author's Source ✓ Attribution preserved; no patch-file
clause
#5 No Person/Group Discrimination ✓ No such restrictions
#6 No Field Discrimination ✓ Transparency is attribution, not
restriction
#7 Distribution of License ✓ Same rights apply to all recipients
#8 Not Product-Specific ✓ Usable by any project; no product
mention
#9 No Restriction on Other SW ✓ No reach-through provisions
#10 Technology-Neutral ✓ No technology-specific terms
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3. WHAT GAP DOES THIS LICENSE FILL?
Every existing OSI-approved license was designed for human authors. They
assume:
(a) a human copyright holder exists
(b) copyright in the licensed work is valid
(c) the "author" is a natural or legal person
These assumptions break down for AI-generated code. Three specific problems:
PROBLEM 1 — False copyright implication
When MIT (or any standard license) is applied to fully autonomous
AI-generated
code, the line "Copyright (c) [year] [author]" implies human authorship
and a
valid copyright that may not exist. The US Copyright Office (January 2025)
confirmed that a prompt alone does not create copyright. Most
jurisdictions
require human authorship for copyright to subsist. Applying MIT to such
code
is, at best, legally meaningless; at worst, actively misleading.
PROBLEM 2 — No mechanism for authorship disclosure
There is no widely adopted standard for disclosing whether code is fully
AI-generated, AI-assisted, or human-authored with AI tooling. This matters
for supply-chain security (knowing the provenance of code), regulatory
compliance (the EU AI Act requires transparency about AI-generated
content),
and the integrity of open-source attribution norms.
PROBLEM 3 — Undefined status for autonomous agent output
AI agents now generate entire codebases with no human creative input — in
CI/CD pipelines, automated scaffolding tools, and agentic coding systems.
This code has no clear copyright owner. Using Unlicense or CC0 is a common
workaround, but neither was designed for this case and neither
distinguishes
between fully autonomous code and AI-assisted human work.
Comparison with the most similar existing licenses:
MIT — identical permissive structure, but implies human
authorship;
no AI-specific provisions; no public domain clause for
autonomous code. AI-MIT is a direct extension, not a
replacement.
Unlicense — public domain dedication, but: (a) makes no distinction
between
autonomous and AI-assisted code; (b) requires no disclosure
of
AI origin; (c) has no fallback for jurisdictions where
public
domain dedication is impossible.
CC0 1.0 — similar to Unlicense; designed for creative works, not
software;
same lack of disclosure requirements.
OpenRAIL — AI-focused license, but: (a) designed for ML model
artifacts,
not generated code; (b) includes use-based behavioral
restrictions
that prevent OSI approval (fails OSD #6).
AI-MIT fills the gap between "pretend it's MIT" and "abandon copyright
entirely"
by providing a structured, three-mode authorship framework with the minimum
additions necessary to be honest about AI origins.
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4. LEGAL REVIEW
The license was drafted with AI assistance (Claude, Anthropic) under human
direction — a fact we disclose openly as it is consistent with the license's
own Transparency condition.
The license has not yet been formally reviewed by a licensed attorney. We
are
actively seeking legal review, particularly from IP practitioners in the EU,
UK, Russia, and Japan, and welcome such review as part of the OSI process.
We understand this is a limitation of the current submission and commit to
updating the community as reviews are received.
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5. EXISTING USERS
The license was published on [2026-03-12]. As of submission, the reference
repository is the primary user.
Currently it used only in one of my project, repo:
https://github.com/nik-sharky/searxng-mcp
and we are not aware of other projects that have adopted it yet, as it is a
new submission.
We note that a lack of existing users is inherent to any newly proposed
license,
and we believe the gap it addresses (described above) represents real demand
that will be reflected in adoption once the license has a recognized status.
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6. REUSABILITY
The license is fully reusable by any licensor. The Authorship Declaration
uses
bracketed fields (Originator, AI Tool, Year, Repository) that any
distributor
fills in for their own project. No clause names or refers to a specific
licensor,
organization, or product. The license achieves the same legal result for all
users regardless of who uses it.
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7. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On the Authorship Declaration structure:
The Declaration is a required attribution element (like the copyright
notice
in MIT) that distributors must fill in and preserve. It is not a condition
that restricts use — it is a disclosure mechanism. Checking the wrong box
would be a misrepresentation, not a license violation per se, analogous to
falsifying a copyright notice under MIT.
On the "Fully AI-generated" / No Copyright Claim clause:
This clause is novel among OSI-submitted licenses. Its purpose is to
honestly
reflect a legal reality (no human author, therefore possibly no copyright)
rather than to impose a restriction. The fallback language ("perpetual,
irrevocable, royalty-free license") ensures the clause functions in
jurisdictions where public domain dedication is not legally possible
(e.g.,
some EU member states under moral rights doctrine).
On meta-context:
This license was itself drafted with AI assistance and is disclosed as
"AI-assisted" in the reference repository. We believe transparency about
this is appropriate and consistent with the license's own values.
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The full license text is attached as AI-MIT-License-1.0.txt.
Thank you for your consideration. I welcome feedback from the committee and
the community.
[Nik]
[nik.sharky at gmail.com]
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AI-MIT License
Version 1.0, 2025
https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHORSHIP DECLARATION
(Distributor must check one and fill in details)
[ ] Fully AI-generated -- no human creative input; no copyright claimed
[ ] AI-assisted -- human-directed, AI-generated output
[ ] Human-authored -- AI used only as a tool (e.g. autocomplete)
Originator : [Name, organization, or "AI Agent / <system name>"]
AI Tool(s) : [e.g. Claude Sonnet 4 (Anthropic), GPT-4o (OpenAI)]
Year : [YYYY]
Repository : [URL or N/A]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRANT OF RIGHTS
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or system
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
(the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONDITIONS
1. ATTRIBUTION
The above Authorship Declaration, this conditions notice, and the
AI-MIT License version tag must be included in all copies or
substantial portions of the Software.
2. TRANSPARENCY
If the Software is redistributed or used as input for further AI
training, the AI origin of the code must not be misrepresented as
purely human-authored work.
3. NO COPYRIGHT CLAIM (Fully AI-generated only)
When the "Fully AI-generated" box is checked, the Originator makes
no copyright claim over the Software. The Software is dedicated to
the public domain to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
Where public domain dedication is not legally possible, the
Originator grants a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to
all parties for any purpose.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMERS
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW,
THE ORIGINATOR EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS THAT:
(a) the Software is free of third-party intellectual property that
may have been embedded through AI training data;
(b) the Software meets the requirements of any law, regulation, or
framework governing AI-generated outputs (including but not
limited to the EU AI Act, US Executive Orders on AI, or
sector-specific regulations);
(c) the Authorship Declaration above is legally sufficient to
establish, transfer, or disclaim rights in any specific
jurisdiction -- users are advised to seek independent legal
counsel for high-stakes deployments.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ORIGINATOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPDX-License-Identifier: AI-MIT-1.0
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