Human Source License (HSL)

A source-available license for the age of AI.

Open source was built on a simple social contract: developers share their work freely, and the community gives back through contributions and goodwill.

AI companies and hyper-scalers have broken this contract. They extract decades of human-written code to build billion-dollar models and managed services — without permission, compensation, or credit.

HSL is a direct response to this extraction.

HSL is a concise license that keeps software free for the community while capturing value from those who profit most:

• Free for the 99%: Free for individuals, researchers, and any organization's internal operations.
• Large-Scale Commercial Use: Companies with >$100M revenue (inflation-adjusted) require a license for external software or services.
• AI Model Protection: Any use for training, running, or supporting AI models for third parties requires a commercial license, regardless of revenue.
• Professional Services Friendly: Using the software as a tool for consulting and custom development remains free.
• Human Hands Only: Contributions from AI agents are rejected. HSL is for human-to-human collaboration.

HSL was developed by Dr. Ralph M. Debusmann in 2026 for Kafi and other projects that believe human creativity deserves protection.

Copy LICENSE into your repo. Replace [Project Name], [Year], and [Copyright Holder] with your own.

HSL v0.2 is a working draft. It has been structured for international use (with specific protections for European and US jurisdictions) but has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer.