Licence terms

Every offer, accept response, entitlement and retrieval carries the same key licence terms: a fixed set of structured fields covering what buyers ask about most, plus a one-line plain-English summary. Publishers set them on their rate cards. Anything they leave out gets a sensible default. Buyers can filter queries on them.

The code is in src/ratecard/licence.ts. This page describes what the exchange records and enforces. It is not legal advice.

Example

offer.licence.key_terms for a Fieldnote Science article sold at display_snippet:

{
  "v": 1,
  "commercial_use": true,
  "attribution_required": true,
  "attribution": "Fieldnote Science",
  "share_alike": false,
  "caching": { "allowed": true, "max_seconds": 604800 },
  "reuse_across_end_users": false,
  "display": "snippet",
  "max_display_chars": 400,
  "ai_training": "prohibited",
  "content_licence_id": null,
  "indemnity": {
    "status": "not_defined",
    "note": "Clear Exchange has not yet published an indemnity or liability position. None is given or implied by this offer."
  },
  "summary": "Commercial use OK; credit Fieldnote Science; snippet up to 400 characters; cache 1 week; one end user per retrieval; no AI training."
}

And a Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0) at display_snippet:

{
  "commercial_use": true,
  "attribution_required": true,
  "share_alike": true,
  "caching": { "allowed": true, "max_seconds": 31536000 },
  "reuse_across_end_users": true,
  "display": "snippet",
  "max_display_chars": null,
  "content_licence_id": "CC-BY-SA-4.0",
  "summary": "Commercial use OK; credit the source; share adaptations under the same licence (CC-BY-SA-4.0); snippet display; cache 1 year; reusable across end users."
}

Fields

Field	Type	Meaning
`v`	integer	Version of this object, `1`.
`commercial_use`	boolean	The buyer may use the content in a commercial product or service.
`attribution_required`	boolean	The buyer must credit the source when it uses the content. True when the rate card sets `citation_required`, and always for openly licensed content (every Creative Commons licence requires attribution).
`attribution`	string or null	Who or what to credit, when the publisher says.
`share_alike`	boolean	Adaptations must be shared under the same licence (the "SA" in CC BY-SA).
`caching.allowed`, `caching.max_seconds`	boolean, integer	Whether the buyer may cache the content, and for how long (the rate card's `retention_seconds`; `0` when caching is not allowed).
`reuse_across_end_users`	boolean	One retrieval may be used to answer more than one of the buyer's end users within the caching window. False means one retrieval serves one end user.
`display`	string	What may be shown verbatim to an end user: `grounding_only` (nothing; the content may only inform the answer), `snippet` or `full_text`. It follows the usage tier sold.
`max_display_chars`	integer or null	The most characters that may be shown: `0` for grounding only, the card's `max_snippet_chars` for a snippet, `null` for no limit (full text, and openly licensed content, where the open licence governs).
`ai_training`	string	`prohibited`, or `per_content_licence` (the open licence governs).
`content_licence_id`	string or null	SPDX-style id of the open licence that governs the item, such as `CC-BY-SA-4.0`. For Wikinews this is the article's own licence.
`indemnity`	object	Placeholder. See Indemnity and liability.
`summary`	string	One plain-English line describing the fields above.

The full rate card terms for the tier sold are still in licence.terms, as the publisher wrote them.

Where the terms appear

Offers: offers[].licence.key_terms in POST /v1/query and POST /v1/acquire.
Accept: licence.key_terms in the POST /v1/offers/{offer_id}/accept response.
Entitlements: cx.key_terms, signed into the token, so a publisher or auditor can check exactly what was sold. Tokens issued before this field existed omit it; it is optional for verifiers.
Retrieval: licence.key_terms in GET /v1/content/{content_id}.
Web UI: the agent console shows the key terms as chips and the summary under each offer, the summary on the entitlement and retrieved content, and the licence flags on each publisher's rate card.

Defaults

Publishers set four flags on the rate card (schema 1.2, in default_terms or per tier). When a card leaves one out:

Flag	Default
`commercial_use`	`true` (a paid licence is a commercial licence), unless the content's open licence is non-commercial (an `NC` licence id).
`share_alike`	The content licence's `share_alike`, else `false`. A card cannot set it to `false` when the open licence is share-alike.
`caching_allowed`	`true` when `retention_seconds` is above zero. It cannot be `true` when `retention_seconds` is `0`.
`reuse_across_end_users`	`true` for openly licensed content (the open licence already allows it), otherwise `false`, so a publisher opts in.

Attribution comes from citation_required and attribution; caching duration from retention_seconds; display from the tier and max_snippet_chars. Those fields are unchanged.

All shipped demo cards state every flag explicitly. In the demo, Cobble & Byte, Quaymark Reference, Stackhollow Guides, Emberline Preprints and the Wikimedia sources allow reuse across end users; Emberline Preprints is licensed for non-commercial use only; Wikipedia is share-alike.

Filtering queries

Add licence filters to constraints on POST /v1/query or POST /v1/acquire. Each filter only narrows results in one direction; the other value is the same as leaving it out.

Constraint	Effect
`commercial_use: true`	Only content licensed for commercial use.
`share_alike: false`	Exclude share-alike content (for example CC BY-SA).
`attribution_required: false`	Exclude content that must be credited. `citation_required: false` does the same.
`caching_allowed: true`	Only content that may be cached.
`min_cache_seconds: N`	Only content that may be cached for at least `N` seconds.
`reuse_across_end_users: true`	Only content where one retrieval may serve many end users.

curl -s localhost:8080/v1/query -d '{
  "query": "how do I configure retries in an http client",
  "agent_id": "my-agent",
  "max_price": { "amount": "0.02", "currency": "USD" },
  "constraints": { "commercial_use": true, "share_alike": false, "reuse_across_end_users": true }
}'

Filters apply to the terms of the tier actually sold, after pricing. Excluded offers count in stats.filtered_by_constraints. If the filters exclude every relevant candidate, the answer is no_match.reason: "filtered_by_constraints".

Indemnity and liability

PLACEHOLDER: to be decided by Paul. Clear Exchange has not set an indemnity or liability position for content bought through it. Nothing in this documentation, the API or an entitlement gives or implies one. Until a position is agreed, every key_terms.indemnity is { "status": "not_defined", ... }. When it is decided, it goes in INDEMNITY_PLACEHOLDER in src/ratecard/licence.ts and in this section.

Open licences

For openly licensed content (Wikinews CC BY, Wikipedia CC BY-SA) the open licence governs reuse. The key terms report what it requires (attribution, share-alike) and never narrow what it grants: there is no display cap, and reuse across end users is allowed. The price is for the exchange's retrieval, entitlement and telemetry service. See Live sources.

Licence terms

Example#

Fields#

Where the terms appear#

Defaults#

Filtering queries#

Indemnity and liability#

Open licences#