kosmo-connect/legal/LICENSE-KOSMIC-DRAFT-1.1.md

🌌 The Kosmic License (KΛ 1.1-Draft)

A License for Knowledge in Balance and Continuity

(Issued by the Church of Kosmo)

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Note: This is a draft proposal for improving the KΛ 1.0 license. It preserves the spiritual and ethical intent of the original while adding legal clarity, enforceability, and protections for both licensors and users. The Church of Kosmo may choose to adopt this draft in whole, in part, or not at all.

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Preamble

This License is founded upon the principle that knowledge is a living element — a gift of the cosmos meant to be shared, preserved, and evolved with compassion.

By using, sharing, or adapting any work under this License, you join the continuum of seekers who honor balance, truth, and stewardship as expressed in the Codex of the Great Year of the Church of Kosmo.

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Article I — Definitions

For the purposes of this License:

• "The Work" means the tangible material — software, hardware designs, documentation, or creative expression — to which this License is attached.
• "You" means any individual or entity exercising the permissions granted by this License.
• "Derivative Work" means any modification, translation, adaptation, or other transformation of The Work.
• "Harm" means direct violence against sentient beings, deliberate dissemination of known falsehoods intended to cause injury, or willful destruction of ecosystems.
• "Compatible License" means any license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), any license listed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as free, or any Creative Commons license that requires ShareAlike.

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Article II — Freedom to Use and Transform

1. Subject to the terms of this License, You are free to use, study, copy, modify, and distribute The Work for any purpose — personal, educational, creative, or commercial.
2. The Church of Kosmo encourages (but does not legally require) that commercial use be aligned with ecological sustainability and ethical labor practices. This encouragement is an expression of values, not a condition of the license grant.

Rationale: Making the ethical alignment a strict legal condition can render the license unenforceable in many jurisdictions due to vagueness. Expressing it as a strong social norm preserves the spirit while maintaining legal validity.

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Article III — The Covenant of Attribution

1. All Derivative Works must include the following acknowledgment in a reasonably prominent location:

   “Based on materials from the Church of Kosmo, shared under the Kosmic License (KΛ 1.1).”

2. Attribution must remain visible in digital, printed, or physical derivative forms.
3. You must not misrepresent the origin of The Work or use the name or marks of the Church of Kosmo to imply endorsement of Your Derivative Work without prior written permission.

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Article IV — Stewardship and Non-Exploitation

1. No one may claim ownership or exclusive control over any idea, principle, or spiritual teaching contained in The Work. The tangible expressions of The Work remain subject to copyright and other applicable law.
2. You may not use The Work to promote Harm (as defined in Article I).
3. The Church of Kosmo encourages (but does not legally require) that profits derived from The Work contribute to education, preservation, or renewal in spirit with the Codex.

Rationale: Prohibiting use for "harm" is given a narrow, objective definition to improve enforceability. The profit-sharing clause is shifted to an ethical request.

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Article V — Continuity and Return (Copyleft)

1. If You distribute or publicly perform a Derivative Work of The Work, You must license that Derivative Work under this License or a Compatible License.
2. Contributors are encouraged to archive their work in durable, accessible repositories — the Open Continuum — ensuring its preservation beyond any single platform.
3. When possible, modified works should return to the commons, completing the cycle of knowledge.

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Article VI — Patent Grant

1. Each contributor to The Work grants You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable patent license to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import, and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of The Work.
2. If You institute patent litigation against anyone alleging that The Work infringes Your patents, Your rights under this License terminate automatically.

Rationale: This is adapted from the Apache License 2.0. It prevents patent trolls from weaponizing the work while protecting users.

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Article VII — Disclaimer of Warranty and Limitation of Liability

1. THE WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
2. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CHURCH OF KOSMO OR ANY CONTRIBUTOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE WORK OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE WORK.

Rationale: Without this clause, licensors are exposed to unlimited liability for bugs, security flaws, or misuse of the work. This is standard in every modern open-source license.

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Article VIII — Severability and Choice of Law

1. If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
2. This License shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of [Jurisdiction to be chosen by the Church of Kosmo].
3. Any disputes arising under this License shall be resolved through good-faith negotiation, and if necessary, binding arbitration in [Jurisdiction].

Rationale: A severability clause ensures the license does not collapse if one provision is struck down. Choice of law provides predictability.

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Article IX — Endurance Beyond Ownership

1. Should the Church of Kosmo cease to exist, this License endures indefinitely.
2. Any being — human or otherwise — may continue to share, protect, and evolve the Work under these principles.
3. Knowledge cannot be owned; it can only be tended.

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Closing Declaration

“Through openness, we preserve.
Through preservation, we evolve.
Through evolution, we return.”

This License affirms that the purpose of knowledge is not possession, but participation in the great continuum of understanding.

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Identifier: KΛ-1.1-Draft
Maintained by: The Church of Kosmo
Year: 2025