The Mutualist License (MutuaL) v1.2

THE MUTUALIST LICENSE v1.2 © 2026 <https://codeberg.org/Mutualism/Mutualist-License> Short ID: MutuaL-1.2 Please note that not including "only" automatically allows license upgrades. "Mutualist License" and "MutuaL" should be seen as the same name everywhere one of them is used after this. Everyone is allowed to share exact copies of this license, with or without changing the formatting, as long as the changes do not alter, remove, or add any terms. You may not change the terms of this license and still call it the Mutualist License, except for clearly marked excerpts, quotations, or commentary. You are free to use this text as a starting point for your own license under a different name. If you do, credit back to us is appreciated, but not required. This license is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. CREDIT Name of this software: (name) Project home: (link) Original copyright holder(s): (name(s)) PURPOSE This license's goal is to allow you to use this software as freely as possible, while protecting the people who make it from harm and making sure everyone plays fair. As long as you follow all of this license's rules, you can use, run, study, copy, change, share, or sell this software for any reason, without having to ask permission first. This section is only here to explain why the Mutualist License exists. It is not a rule or permission by itself. Those are found in the sections to follow. MutuaL is a flipped form (https://flippedform.com/) in everyday English. If something doesn't make sense, that's MutuaL's fault, not yours. Please open an issue (https://codeberg.org/Mutualism/Mutualist-License/issues) so we can fix it. ACCEPTANCE In order to receive any benefits from this license, you must agree to all of its rules. These rules are the conditions of the deal. If you do not follow the rules, you do not have a license. Do not use this software if you cannot or will not follow these rules. Please read this license as a whole; different sections rely on each other to make sense. You agree to these rules if you use, run, study, copy, change, share, or sell this software in any way that normally needs permission. From now on, we'll just use "use" when we want to refer to this long list. In this license, "Use" should always be read to mean the full list in this paragraph. GENEROSITY The copyright holders and contributors allow you to do everything with this software that would otherwise break that contributor's copyright and related rights. You must follow this license's rules to get and keep these rights. This license, by itself, does not give you any rights to use any names, logos, or trademarks in promotion. SYMMETRY This section should be read as a basic contributor agreement. It describes what you agree to when you contribute changes to this software, separate from your rights as a user or distributor. If you change this software and then make your changes available to anyone that makes or shares this software, you license those changes under this same license for everyone. You "make them available" when you: - open a pull request, merge request, or patch submission, - post them in a public project space, forum, or issue tracker, - include them in any public sharing, or - let people use them in the project. Your license for your changes applies only to the parts you made or changed. It does not apply to separate code you mixed with your changes unless you own that code or have permission to license it this way. By making your changes available, you promise that: - you have the right to share those changes under this license, and - you are not adding code that has rules you aren't allowed to give. If someone claims your changes include code they own or that needs different terms, that dispute is between you and the person making the claim. Other contributors and copyright holders are not responsible for verifying your contributions. NOTICE Everyone who receives a copy of this software from you, with or without changes, must also receive: - this license or a link to it (https://codeberg.org/Mutualism/Mutualist-License), and - the current Credit block from the copy you received, if any. You may include the license and Credit in any reasonable way. For example, you can put them in a "LICENSE" file, document, an about box, or other place where people normally look for license and copyright information. You may add your own Credit, or update facts in the Credit block, if: - you keep the original Credit block somewhere in the project, and - you do not suggest that anyone approves of you or your changes unless they actually do. If you add credit, the original Credit block must be at least as easy to find. If the copy you received didn't have a Credit block, you do not have to add one. If you want, you can still add one for your own changes. Metadata like SPDX® headers count as a "reasonable way" to follow this section's rules about including the license. MUTUALISM If you share this software or software based on it, you must use this same license for any copies that you share and follow the Notice rule. This applies whether or not you've made changes. You must not add rules to these copies that would limit or take away the rights people get under this license. You must not add technical measures to this software that are designed or used mostly to stop others from using their own rights under this license. You are allowed to use security measures whose purpose is to protect users, systems, or data, and that do not stop people from using their rights under this license. If you change this software and allow others (as defined in Clarity) to interact with it over a network, like the internet, you must give them a clear and easy way to get the source code and this license. The source code must be for that exact version. For example, a clear link in the user interface that lets them download the source for the version they're using. You must keep that source available for as long as you are letting others interact with a modified version over a network. If you stop running or offering that modified version, you no longer need to offer source. If you start offering a modified version again later, you must provide the source code again. If you run an unchanged copy of this software over a network, and others can use it directly as you offer it, you do not have to provide source code. This exception applies only when people interact with this software as itself. It does not apply when this software acts as a hidden component of something else you have made. To use this exception, you must keep any links or references to this software's home that were already present. You do not have to add new links to the software's home if none were included when you received your copy. This exception is for straightforward hosting. It applies when someone connects to your instance and gets the software as it was made, without a separate layer of your own software between them and it. It does not apply if this software is a backend or component of a different product or service you have built, or if what users primarily interact with is something you made that depends on this software to run. If you run software for others (as defined in Clarity) over a network that depends on this software for core functionality, you must also follow the rules above for sharing source code, as if you were sharing this software itself. This applies even if others never use this software directly, and even if your copy of this software is unchanged. A service "depends on this software for core functionality" when it could not operate in its current form without this software, and this software provides substantial functionality that users of the service benefit from. This does not apply when this software is merely a tool-like an operating system, compiler, or utility-that happens to be used in the stack but is not a core part of what makes the service valuable to users. If you share this software or software based on it with others in a form people can run off of a network, you must also offer them the source code for those parts. You can do this by including the source code with the sharing or by letting them know about a standard and no-cost way to get the source code over a network. Any time you must provide others with source code, it must not require separate contracts or extra terms beyond this license. INNOVATION Every copyright holder and contributor, and everyone who gives you this software under this license, also gives you a patent license to use this software as this license allows. It covers any patents of theirs that you would break by using the software as this license allows. If they later get new patents, those patents are also covered if they would be broken by using this software as this license allows. If you start what we will call a "patent attack," you immediately and permanently lose all rights under this license for this software. A "patent attack" means starting a patent lawsuit or making a legal demand (such as a cease-and-desist letter or a request for royalty payment). For an action to count as a patent attack, ALL of the following must be true: - The action claims that someone using this software (or software based on it, or any contribution to it) has broken a patent you control. - The action is aimed at someone who is using this software under this license. - The person you are suing or demanding from has accepted this license for that use. WHAT IS NOT A PATENT ATTACK A patent attack does not include legal actions against people who don't have rights under this license. For example: - Someone who never accepted this license, or - Someone who lost their rights under Redemption and did not fix the problem in time, or - Someone who already lost their rights under this Innovation section in a past patent attack. None of these count as patent attacks. DEFENSE EXCEPTION This rule does not apply if you are only defending yourself. You are only defending yourself if all of the following are true: - Someone else sued you first over patents about this software (or software based on it). - You were following this license's rules when they sued you. - Your response stays within that same dispute, or a dispute covering the same core issue. If you meet all three conditions above, you may: - Argue that their patent is invalid, not broken by your use, or can't be enforced, and/or - Bring a counterclaim or cross-claim about their use of this software (or software based on it). If you do anything beyond these defensive actions in that dispute, or if you start a separate patent action, this exception does not apply. UNRELATED PATENT CASES This rule also does not apply to patent cases that are only about software or technology clearly unrelated to this software, which does not include it or software based on it. This patent rule does not affect any other rights you might have under other agreements for the same software. WHAT THIS MEANS IN PLAIN ENGLISH Patent law requires precise language. Here is what the rules above mean in simple terms: A "patent attack" is when you use patents you control to stop someone from using this software as this license allows. If you do this, you lose all your rights to the software immediately and forever. There is no Redemption period. The "defense exception" protects you if someone else attacks you first. You can fight back in that same lawsuit without losing your license. However, you cannot start a separate patent action and claim it is "defense." Your response must stay in the dispute they started. You can sue people who never accepted this license, who already lost their rights under Redemption, or who already lost rights under this Innovation section. None of those count as patent attacks under this license. This section explains these terms for your understanding, but are not themselves the binding terms. Everything from "Innovation" to just before "What this means in plain English" are the legally binding terms you need to listen to. COOPERATION You are allowed to link or combine this software with other software licensed under different terms if that other software's license gives everyone the rights to use it. The other software's source code must be shared to others to fit this description. If the other software's license fits that description, the Mutualism rule changes. MutuaL still applies to this software; however, it does not force you to share the other software's source code. You must still follow the source sharing and network rules from Mutualism for the MutuaL-licensed parts, but you do not have to license the combined work as a whole under this license. If the other software does not meet that condition (like if it's closed source), this Cooperation exception does not apply. In that case, the full Mutualism rule applies to the entire combined work. This exception only applies if the source code remains separable; that is, the MutuaL-licensed source files remain separate from other source files and are not mixed in a way that prevents easy separation. What happens when source code is compiled into binaries does not change whether the source is separable. Code becomes inseparable when: - It is copy-pasted across file boundaries, OR - Source files are merged so the MutuaL-licensed portions cannot be spotted and separated by reasonable effort. Separable means the MutuaL-licensed source code stays in its own identifiable files, even if those files are later compiled into a combined binary. If the source code becomes inseparable, the full Mutualism rule applies to everything. Static and dynamic linking are both allowed under this exception as long as the source files remain separate and identifiable. Any license that fits the Free Software Definition (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) or Open Source Definition (https://opensource.org/osd) meets this condition. This is not the only way for a license to qualify. This exception is offered by the Mutualist License, but please make sure the other license also plays nice by allowing this on its end. Ask a legal expert if you are unsure. REDEMPTION If any copyright holder of this software lets you know in writing that you have not followed any of the rules of this license except for Innovation, you can keep your license by fixing the problem. The notice must reasonably identify which rule or rules were broken so you know what to fix. To fix the problem, you must, within 30 days after you receive the notice: - stop doing the thing that breaks the rules of this license, and - do what is needed to fix the mistake and make things right, such as giving people missing source code, Notice, or license copies. If you do this in time, your rights under this license continue as if you never broke its rules. You have done this successfully either when the person who let you know agrees with your fix, or when you have let them know about your fix but they have not responded after seven days. If these seven days extend beyond the 30 day Redemption period, the Redemption period extends to cover this time. If you do not do this in time, all your rights under this license for this software end automatically at the end of the 30 days. Any copyright holder may choose to give you a new license if they choose, but they do not have to. If they do, it must be in writing. You do not get this Redemption period if you violate the Innovation rule. In that case, your rights under this license end immediately and permanently when you start the patent attack. RELIABILITY This license, along with its rights and grants, lasts forever. No one can revoke them or ask you to stop using the software, except where this license states that your rights may end (for example, under Innovation and Redemption). The law likes to see certain terms here, so legally speaking: this counts as a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license that lasts as long as copyright and related rights and patent law allows, unless otherwise ended under this license. FORESIGHT If you are using this license for your own software, please read this section carefully and choose the wording that matches what you actually want. New versions of the Mutualist License may be released over time. You can tell a version is newer by its higher number. Each copy of the software will say which version it uses at the top of its license section. If your copy does not say "only," you may follow that version or any later one. If it says "only," you must follow that exact version and not a later one. If you combine code under different versions, the newest version applies to the whole combined work. You cannot mix code that requires "only" a specific version with code that does not, unless all code uses "only" that same version. Updating the license in the software does not change the license for copies you already received. You can only move to a higher version number, never lower. CLARITY By "this software," we are including both its source code and any form built from that source code. By "software based on this software," we mean work that fits the legal definition of a derivative work under copyright law. Software is not "based on this software" if it only runs alongside it or talks to it through a "standard interface." This license does not touch separate software. By "source code," we mean the best form for making changes. This includes the code itself, plus the scripts and files needed to build, install, connect, and run it. By "share," we mean giving copies of this software or software based on it to someone else, in any form, by any method, for free or for money. By "copyright and related rights," we mean that besides copyright, we're also including neighboring rights, database rights, and similar rights in any country. By "standard interface," we mean a public way for software to talk to other software. This includes things like APIs, protocols, or file formats. It must be documented in a way that allows independent implementation, and available for anyone in the general public to use. By "others," we mean any person, company, or group that is not you, and not part of the same single legal entity as you. - If you are acting as an individual, "others" means people you don't live with and who aren't part of your immediate family. Regardless of how your jurisdiction defines "immediate family", your spouse, romantic partner(s), parents, siblings, and children always count as part of your immediate family as far as this license is concerned. - If you are acting for a legal entity, "others" are anyone outside that entity. Contractors do not count as "others" while they are: - Under direct contract to do specific work for you, AND - Bound by confidentiality obligations to your entity, AND - Working under your direction and control (not as an independent service provider) Once a contractor's work ends or these conditions no longer apply, they become "others" if they retain access to the software. - Public users, customers, clients, federated groups, and unrelated organizations always count as "others," even if access to the service is limited, invite-only, or requires registration. - Cloud providers, CDNs, and similar outside services do not count as "others" or a group that "shares" the software if they just run or deliver what you tell them to. We need to use "legal entity" here, but it means a company, non-profit, or organization that the law treats as one single person. By "core functionality," we mean the essential features that make a service valuable to its users. Software provides core functionality when the service could not operate in its current form without it, and it provides substantial value that users benefit from. A version of the software is "unchanged" if you have not modified any part of its code or build configuration in a way that creates a derivative work under copyright or related rights. Changing only how the software is configured, such as setting environment variables, editing configuration files, or adjusting settings through the software's own interface, does not count as modifying its code or build configuration. A copy remains unchanged even if you have configured it for your environment or use case. By "in writing," we mean a physical document or digital message. It must clearly show who sent it and what they mean. A version of the Mutualist License is only considered real and applicable to Foresight if it appears, or has ever appeared, at the license's home (https://codeberg.org/Mutualism/Mutualist-License) or a future home that the original author(s) designate. This license is only valid in English. If a court or regulatory body looks at it, they must use the English text. Translations are just for help and have no legal power. HOLISM If any part of this license is invalid or can't be enforced, the rest still applies. The invalid part will be changed to make it valid if possible. If it can't be fixed, that part will be removed, but the rest of the license stays in effect. NON-LIABILITY Unless the law says we have to, or unless we signed a separate written agreement with you, we provide this software to you "AS IS." We do not make any promises about the software. We do not guarantee that it works perfectly. This includes, but is not limited to, the legal warranties of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Unless the law forces us to be, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY KIND OF LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT COMES FROM USING THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF WE KNEW IT COULD HAPPEN. This includes things like lost data, broken systems, or money you lose because the software did not work the way you hoped. You are the one who has to decide if this software is safe or right for you to use or share. You take all the risks when you use it. Some of the capitalized words in this section break the flipped form goal. This is because the law requires us to use those specific words, often in capital letters, to make sure you see them. Unfortunately, because they are legal terms, they can be confusing. Here is what they mean in simple English: AS-IS: In the state the software is in when you receive a copy of it, no matter what state that may be. TITLE: This means we formally promise that we own the software or have the right to give it to you. We are not making that promise. NON-INFRINGEMENT: This means we promise the software does not steal anyone else's work or break copyright rules. We are not making that promise. MERCHANTABILITY: This means the software is good enough to be sold in a store and works like a normal person would expect. We are not making that promise. FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE: This means the software will work for the specific job or goal you have in mind. We are not making that promise. This list explains these terms for your understanding, but the capitalized phrases are the binding terms.