The Unenshittifiable License

The Spirit

This license is for software meant to stay useful to people — not to be quietly enclosed, paywalled, and made worse over time.

Everything below is the legally-operative version of one simple promise: keep the commons open, and keep it out of the toll-booth business. Where the plain meaning and the legalese ever seem to disagree, the spirit wins.

Definitions

“The Software” means the work distributed under this license, including its source, and any modified versions.

“You” means any person or organisation exercising the rights granted here.

“Commercial Offering” means providing the Software, or substantially the Software, to third parties for a fee, paid subscription, or paid access of any kind — including a hosted service, a paid edition, or a bundled commercial product.

“Internal Use” means running the Software for yourself or your own organisation's own purposes, without offering it to third parties for a fee.

What You May Do

You may read, study, and learn from the source. You may run it anywhere, for any non-prohibited purpose, including Internal Use at a company of any size.

You may copy, modify, and fork it. You may self-host it for yourself or your community, forever, at no cost. If you distribute your modified versions, you must do so under this same license, with source.

You may charge for your own time and expertise around the Software — installation, configuration, hosting setup, training, support, and consulting are all explicitly welcome.

Conditions

Keep this license and the copyright notice intact in all copies and substantial portions of the Software.

Distribute modified versions under this same license, with source. Improvements to the commons stay in the commons.

State significant changes you made, so people can tell your fork from the original.

What You May Not Do

You may not use the Software, or a substantially similar derivative, as the basis of a Commercial Offering. No paid clones, no selling access, no paid “Pro” editions, no bundling it into a product you charge for.

You may not place the Software, or access to it, behind a paywall, subscription, advertising, or any other toll on the commons.

These limits travel with the Software. You cannot relicense your way out of them.

Branding & Identity

The code can be forked. The identity cannot be impersonated. You may truthfully describe your work as “based on” or “forked from” the original project.

You may not present your fork as the official project, use its name or logo to imply endorsement, or pass off a derivative as the original.

Contributions

Unless you say otherwise, anything you contribute back to the Software is offered under this same license, so it can benefit everyone who comes after you.

No Warranty

The Software is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The authors are not liable for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from the Software or its use. It's a public park, not a managed service — enjoy it responsibly.

Termination

If you violate these terms, your rights under this license end automatically. They are reinstated the moment you stop and put things right — the door back into the commons is always open.