Regen Commons · Standards Libraryv1.0

Regenerative Commons License

The Regenerative Commons License — Version 1.0

Formal legal text. Effective upon publication at the Canonical URL.

For a human-readable summary, see the Deed at RCL-DEED-v1.0.md. When the Deed and this License differ, this License controls.

Steward: Regenerative Development Corp ("RDC"), a Delaware corporation, transitioning to the VLAS Trust upon its constitution.

Canonical URL: https://commons.zoen.earth/license/v1.0

Version: 1.0 · Published: TBD upon Wave 1 launch · License identifier: RCL-1.0

Preamble

The Regenerative Commons License ("RCL", "this License") governs the use of the standards, methods, data, software, narrative works, and derivative artifacts of the regenerative commons. It is published by the Steward and is the constitutional document for participation in the commons.

The RCL is not an "open source" license in the sense of the Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition. It is an open commons license. It is open to participants who commit to public benefit and to non-extractive use of the licensed work. It is closed to use that would extract value from places, communities, or living systems without measurable regeneration of the Five Capitals (Natural, Human, Social, Manufactured/Built, Financial).

The RCL acknowledges that any metric becomes gameable under sufficient optimization pressure (Goodhart's Law). Compliance with this License is necessary but not sufficient for regenerative practice. Licensees are expected to act in the spirit of regeneration, not merely the letter of the License.

The RCL is structured to honor:

  • The Place Community as the bioregional human community that any licensed work ultimately serves;
  • Indigenous sovereignty and the Indigenous data sovereignty principles articulated in the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, with traditional knowledge governed exclusively through Local Contexts Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC) Labels;
  • The seventh-generation principle as an interpretive standard for ambiguity;
  • The distinction between doing less harm (sustainability) and increasing the capacity of living systems (regeneration), with regeneration as the standard;
  • The principle of reciprocity over extraction, with value flows that return to the places, communities, and stewards who make the commons real.

This License draws on prior art including the Creative Commons license family (attribution, share-alike), the Apache License 2.0 (patent grant, defensive termination), Llama 2 Community License (use-based restrictions and external Acceptable Use Policy), the OpenRAIL license family (use-case prohibitions), the Peer Production License (commons-based reciprocity), and the Local Contexts framework (Indigenous data sovereignty). The RCL combines these into a coherent license-as-membership-contract for the regenerative civilization.

1. Definitions

For the purposes of this License, the following terms have the meanings given below. Defined terms appear in bold on first use within each clause.

1.1. "Acceptable Use Policy" or "AUP" means the Regenerative Commons Acceptable Use Policy published at https://commons.zoen.earth/aup, as amended from time to time. The AUP is incorporated by reference into this License.

1.2. "Affiliate" means, with respect to any Person, any other Person that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with that Person.

1.3. "Attribution" means the notice elements required by Section 7.1.

1.4. "Authoritative Version" means the Work as published by the Steward at the Canonical URL, including all revisions formally promulgated by the Steward.

1.5. "Bioregion" means a geographic area defined by ecological boundaries (watershed, biome, soil region, or equivalent), and the human communities culturally tied to that area.

1.6. "Canonical URL" means the permanent URL at which the Steward publishes the Authoritative Version of a Work, the License, the AUP, and associated documents.

1.7. "Certified License" means the License status granted upon successful completion of Gate 2 (Regen-Commons Certification).

1.8. "Chapter" means a regional federation body formally recognized by the Steward to publish a jurisdictional appendix to the License (for example, the United States Chapter, the European Union Chapter, the South America Chapter).

1.9. "Commercial Use" means use of a Work intended for, or primarily directed toward, commercial advantage or monetary compensation, including but not limited to (i) sale, lease, or license of the Work or any Derivative Work; (ii) use of the Work in offering services for fee; (iii) use of the Work as a basis for raising capital, including securities offerings, debt instruments, or token issuances; (iv) advertising-supported distribution; and (v) use that creates a competitive advantage in a commercial market. Use by a Designated Steward of the outputs of the Place they steward is not Commercial Use within the meaning of this License.

1.10. "Commons Stewardship Office" means the office, division, or designated body of the Steward that administers Gate 2 review, mark issuance, and License enforcement.

1.11. "Community Dividend" means the reciprocity obligation set forth in Section 9.

1.12. "Conformance Claim" means any public statement, representation, or marking asserting that an implementation, work, practice, product, service, or organization satisfies VLAS, RCCS, or any associated standard published by the Steward.

1.13. "Credentialed Educator" has the meaning given in Section 4.2.

1.14. "CRP" means a Certified Regen-Commons Participant — a Licensee holding a Certified License.

1.15. "Derivative Work" means any modification, adaptation, translation, abridgement, expansion, transformation, recasting, or combination of a Work with another work, in any form or medium. Mere format conversion, technical transcoding, or paginating without alteration of substance is not a Derivative Work.

1.16. "Designated Steward" has the meaning given in Section 4.3.

1.17. "Eligible Entity" has the meaning given in Section 4.1.

1.18. "Eligible Licensee" means any Person who qualifies under one of the three Eligibility Paths set forth in Section 4.

1.19. "FPIC" means Free, Prior, and Informed Consent as that term is understood in international Indigenous rights law, including but not limited to UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Articles 10, 11, 19, 28, 29, and 32, and ILO Convention 169.

1.20. "Field of Use Restrictions" means the prohibitions and restrictions set forth in Section 8.

1.21. "Five Capitals" means the framework comprising Natural Capital, Human Capital, Social Capital, Manufactured (or Built) Capital, and Financial Capital, as defined in the Five Capitals Playbook published by the Steward.

1.22. "Gate" means one of the three certification gates set forth in Section 5.

1.23. "Indigenous Knowledge" means knowledge, practices, expressions, innovations, and cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples, including traditional ecological knowledge, sacred and ceremonial knowledge, place-based knowledge, and knowledge held under customary law.

1.24. "Knowledge Commons Contribution" or "KCC" has the meaning given in Section 9.2.

1.25. "Licensed Work" or "Work" means a work made available under this License by its copyright holder, including without limitation: standards documents, methodologies, software, data and datasets, narrative and educational works, visual and design works, AI models or artifacts, and hardware specifications.

1.26. "Licensee" means any Person exercising rights under this License.

1.27. "Licensor" means the copyright holder of a particular Licensed Work who makes that Work available under this License.

1.28. "Local Contexts" means the framework, infrastructure, and Labels developed by the Local Contexts initiative (https://localcontexts.org) for the recognition and management of Indigenous Knowledge through TK Labels and BC Labels.

1.29. "Place" means a defined geographic area with associated bioregional, cultural, and community characteristics, registered with the Steward via the PlaceID system.

1.30. "Place Community" means the human community resident in or culturally tied to a Place, as recognized through a Story of Place process or equivalent community-recognition process.

1.31. "Patent Claim" means any patent claim now or in the future owned or controlled by a Person that would be infringed by use of the Licensed Work as permitted by this License.

1.32. "Person" means any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust, association, government body, Indigenous nation, cooperative, foundation, or other legal entity.

1.33. "Provisional License" means the License status granted upon successful completion of Gate 1 (Self-Declaration).

1.34. "RCCS" means the Regenerative Capital Credit System, a conformant implementation of VLAS.

1.35. "Regenerative Use" means use of a Work that produces net positive flows across at least three of the Five Capitals over a stated measurement period, with negative flows in any capital offset within the same period, and with measurable benefit to the Place Community.

1.36. "Steward" means the Person identified above as the publisher and steward of this License, namely Regenerative Development Corp during the interim period and the VLAS Trust upon its constitution.

1.37. "Track A" means the Learn & Reference grant set forth in Section 6.1.

1.38. "Track B" means the Build & Adapt grant set forth in Section 6.2.

1.39. "Track C" means the Steward & Commercialize grant set forth in Section 6.3.

1.40. "Verified Living Asset" or "VLA" means an asset recognized under VLAS.

1.41. "VLAS" means the Verified Living Asset Standard published by the Steward as the governing standard for the regenerative commons.

1.42. "VLAS Trust" means the independent standards body, the constitution of which is in progress at the time of publication of this License, intended to assume the role of Steward upon its formation.

1.43. "You" (or "Your") means an individual or Person exercising rights under this License.

2. Acceptance

By exercising any right granted under this License, You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this License and the AUP. If You do not accept these terms, You may not exercise any right granted under this License.

If You are exercising rights on behalf of a legal entity, You represent that You have authority to bind that entity, and "You" includes that entity.

Acceptance is not conditioned on signature or registration, except where Section 5 (Gates) requires registration as a condition of a particular grant.

3. Scope of the Work

3.1. Categories covered. This License may be applied to any of the following categories of work, at the election of the Licensor:

(a) Standards documents, including without limitation VLAS, RCCS specifications, Five Capitals frameworks, and associated guidance; (b) Methodologies, including Story of Place process, integrative process methods, readiness gate protocols, and FPIC procedures; (c) Software and code; (d) Data and datasets, including sensor data, registry data, and aggregated observations; (e) Narrative and educational works, including the Zoen Covenant excerpts authorized for release, case studies, and curricula; (f) Visual and design works, including diagrams, dashboards, and brand systems that the Licensor elects to release; (g) AI models and artifacts, including trained models, fine-tunes, and adapter weights; (h) Hardware specifications, including sensor protocols and reference designs.

3.2. Living Works. A Work may be designated by the Licensor as a "Living Work," meaning that the Work mutates over time with verified evidence (for example, a Story of Place that updates as the Place evolves). Living Works carry the additional obligations of (i) maintaining a public changelog, (ii) preserving all prior versions in the Steward's Registry, and (iii) explicitly identifying which version is the Authoritative Version at any given time.

3.3. Indigenous Knowledge exclusion. Indigenous Knowledge is not governed by this License. Indigenous Knowledge appearing within or alongside a Licensed Work is governed exclusively by Local Contexts TK Labels and BC Labels, by the customary law of the Indigenous community of origin, and by any agreements between that community and other Persons. Nothing in this License grants any right to use, reproduce, modify, or distribute Indigenous Knowledge.

3.4. Brand marks excluded. The trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and trade names of the Steward, including "Regen-Commons Registered," "Regen-Commons Certified," "VLAS Conformant," "RCCS Certified," and the visual marks issued under Section 5, are not licensed under this License. Use of these marks is governed separately by Section 11.

4. Eligibility — three paths to participate

To exercise any right beyond mere reading and citation (Section 6.1), You must qualify under at least one of the three Eligibility Paths set forth below. The Paths are alternative routes to participation; You need qualify under only one. The Paths may be stacked: a single Person may qualify under more than one Path, with each Path covering its own activities.

4.1. Path 1 — Eligible Entity

You qualify as an Eligible Entity if You are one of the following, organized under the law of any jurisdiction:

(a) A Delaware Public Benefit Corporation or equivalent public-benefit corporation in another state of the United States; (b) A B-Corporation certified by B Lab, regardless of underlying legal form; (c) A nonprofit organization recognized as exempt under Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code or equivalent foreign exemption; (d) A worker, producer, or consumer cooperative organized under a state cooperative statute or equivalent foreign cooperative law; (e) An Indigenous nation, tribe, band, or Indigenous-controlled entity; (f) A government body, public authority, or intergovernmental institution acting in a public-benefit capacity; (g) An accredited academic or research institution, using the Work for non-commercial research and teaching; (h) A Community Interest Company under United Kingdom law, an SRL-BC under Italian law, a SAS à mission under French law, a Canadian Community Contribution Company, or another equivalent foreign public-benefit corporate form; (i) A foundation, trust, donor-advised fund, or fiscally sponsored project with a charitable or stewardship purpose; (j) A natural person using the Work for personal learning, research, advocacy, creative work, or other non-commercial activity in service of public benefit. Personal use under this clause (j) is unrestricted in scope provided the use complies with the Field of Use Restrictions in Section 8.

You are not an Eligible Entity if You are:

(i) A standard for-profit corporation (C-corporation, S-corporation, limited liability company, limited partnership, or similar), unless qualifying separately under clauses (b), (h), or another Eligible Entity form; (ii) An entity whose primary revenue is derived from fossil fuel extraction, industrial monoculture agriculture, weapons manufacturing, surveillance technology, or financial speculation; (iii) A sovereign wealth fund, hedge fund, private equity fund, or similar investment vehicle, except in the capacity of a limited partner investor in a VLAS-conformant or RCL-conformant capital vehicle, which capacity is governed by the relevant offering documents and not by this License.

4.2. Path 2 — Credentialed Educator

You qualify as a Credentialed Educator if You are a natural person and at least one of the following applies:

(a) Your primary source of income (50% or more) is derived from teaching, training, curriculum development, accredited educational consulting, academic research, or scholarly writing in a field substantively related to the Licensed Work; (b) You hold a full-time faculty appointment at an accredited K-12, vocational, college, or university institution; (c) You are a recognized independent educator within a chartered training body acknowledged by the Steward, including without limitation Regenesis Group, Bioneers, Schumacher College, the International Living Future Institute, and other bodies listed at the Steward's published roster of recognized educator bodies (the "Recognized Educator Bodies Roster"); (d) You are an Indigenous knowledge holder serving in a teaching role recognized by Your nation or community; (e) You are a doctoral candidate or post-doctoral researcher in a field substantively related to the Licensed Work, for the duration of Your candidacy or post-doctoral appointment.

A Credentialed Educator may monetize teaching, training, consulting, speaking, writing, and coaching engagements substantively derived from the Licensed Work, subject to the conditions of Track B and the KCC obligations of Section 9.2. The Credentialed Educator credential is personal and non-transferable.

A Credentialed Educator whose education-derived gross revenue exceeds five hundred thousand United States dollars ($500,000) in a calendar year must either (i) organize as an Eligible Entity under Section 4.1 and re-register the Credential under that entity, or (ii) execute a Track C agreement with the Steward.

4.3. Path 3 — Designated Steward

You qualify as a Designated Steward if You are a natural person, a household, a village, a watershed council, an Indigenous nation or community, a land trust, a stewardship cooperative, or another collective Person, and:

(a) You hold ongoing place-based stewardship responsibility for a defined Place; (b) Your stewardship is substantive and continuous, and not predominantly extractive in nature; (c) Your stewardship is recognized through at least one of: (i) deed, easement, lease, or title; (ii) customary or ancestral tenure; (iii) Indigenous title under customary law; (iv) attestation by Your community; (v) attestation by an Indigenous council; (vi) recognition by a land trust or stewardship body.

A Designated Steward holds full economic rights to the outputs of the stewarded Place, including without limitation food, fiber, water-based, biodiversity, ecotourism, cultural-experience, and Place-based-consulting outputs, subject to FPIC requirements where Indigenous communities are implicated and subject to the Field of Use Restrictions in Section 8.

The Designated Steward credential covers only the stewarded Place and Your activities concerning that Place. Consulting, teaching, or other Work concerning Places You do not steward requires qualification under Path 1 or Path 2.

The Designated Steward credential is not transferable by sale or commercial conveyance. It may transfer to a successor steward through community recognition or through Your designation of a successor under Your own governance.

4.4. Stacking and conflict tiebreaker

A single Person may hold credentials under more than one Path. When two Paths give different answers to whether a particular use is permitted, the more restrictive answer governs.

4.5. Self-attestation and the Provisional License

Eligibility is initially established by Your self-attestation upon registration with the Steward (Gate 1). This self-attestation yields a Provisional License under Section 5.1. The Steward may verify eligibility at any time. Material misrepresentation in self-attestation terminates the License under Section 13.

5. The three Gates

5.1. Gate 1 — Self-Declaration → Provisional License. Upon completing the Self-Declaration process at https://commons.zoen.earth/apply, including (i) selection of an Eligibility Path under Section 4, (ii) attestation of compliance with the Field of Use Restrictions in Section 8, (iii) acceptance of this License and the AUP, and (iv) registration of contact information, You receive a Provisional License effective immediately. The Provisional License grants the rights of Track A (Section 6.1) and the limited rights of Track B (Section 6.2) as set forth in Section 6, subject to all conditions and restrictions of this License.

5.2. Gate 2 — Regen-Commons Certification → Certified License. You may apply for a Certified License through the Commons Stewardship Office. Application includes (i) a Statement of Regenerative Intent, (ii) references attesting to Your eligibility, (iii) evidence of Your Eligibility Path qualification, (iv) Five Capitals self-assessment baseline for at least one project You will track, (v) payment of the applicable Knowledge Commons Contribution under Section 9.2, and (vi) any further evidence reasonably requested by the Stewardship Office. Upon successful review, You receive a Certified License effective from the date of issuance. The Certified License confirms Your status as a CRP and grants full Track B rights (Section 6.2), full participation in the platform (workspaces, Place Pulse reports, public registry listing, Reciprocity Ledger), and the right to display the Certified Mark.

5.3. Gate 3 — VLAS Conformance Certification → Conformant License. Persons issuing Verified Living Assets, operating an RCCS implementation, publishing pricing or NAV inputs, or otherwise making formal Conformance Claims must complete the VLAS Conformance Certification process as set forth in the VLAS standard. Upon successful conformance certification under one of the conformance classes A, B, C, D, or E, You receive a Conformant License effective from the date of certification, with the rights and obligations specific to that conformance class as set forth in VLAS.

5.4. Gate progression is voluntary. No Licensee is required to progress beyond Gate 1. The Gates are designed so that most Licensees will operate at Gate 1 or Gate 2; only Persons with specific operational roles in the regenerative capital infrastructure need Gate 3.

5.5. Marks. The Steward issues a visual mark at each Gate (provisional, certified, conformant). Use of the marks is governed by Section 11. The marks include a verification identifier that links to a public verification endpoint.

6. Grants — three tracks

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Licensor grants You a worldwide, royalty-free (except as set forth in Section 9), non-sublicensable (except under Track C as set forth below) license to exercise the rights set forth in the applicable Track. Tracks are cumulative within the Licensee's Gate level: a CRP at Gate 2 holds all rights of Tracks A and B.

6.1. Track A — Learn & Reference (all Persons)

Track A is available to all Persons without registration, including Persons who do not qualify under any Eligibility Path. Under Track A You may:

(a) Read and study the Work; (b) Reproduce the Work for personal, academic, or journalistic purposes, in whole or in part, subject to Attribution under Section 7.1; (c) Cite the Work in any context; (d) Teach the Work in non-commercial educational settings.

Track A does not permit modification, Commercial Use, distribution of material portions of the Work to third parties beyond fair-use citation, or any other right.

6.2. Track B — Build & Adapt (Eligible Licensees, non-commercial)

Track B is available to Eligible Licensees holding at minimum a Provisional License. Under Track B You may, in addition to Track A rights:

(a) Modify and adapt the Work, creating Derivative Works; (b) Combine the Work with other works, subject to Section 12 (Compatibility); (c) Distribute the Work and Derivative Works for non-commercial purposes; (d) For Credentialed Educators: monetize teaching, training, consulting, speaking, writing, and coaching engagements substantively derived from the Work, subject to KCC obligations under Section 9.2; (e) For Designated Stewards: receive full economic rights to outputs of the stewarded Place, as set forth in Section 4.3.

Track B requires:

(i) Attribution under Section 7.1; (ii) Provenance preservation under Section 7.2; (iii) Share-alike under Section 7.3 (Derivative Works of Track B Works must be released under RCL Track B or a compatible license); (iv) The non-authoritative-derivative notice under Section 7.4; (v) Compliance with the Field of Use Restrictions in Section 8.

6.3. Track C — Steward & Commercialize (Eligible Licensees, by written agreement)

Track C is available only to Eligible Licensees who execute a separate written agreement with the Steward (a "Track C Agreement"). The Track C Agreement is governed by this License but specifies the additional commercial terms applicable to the particular Licensee, including without limitation:

(a) Scope of permitted Commercial Use; (b) Community Dividend rate and beneficiary Place Community under Section 9.1; (c) Sublicensing rights, where granted; (d) Conformance obligations, where applicable; (e) Audit and reporting obligations; (f) FPIC obligations for Place-bound deployments.

A Track C Agreement may not waive or reduce any obligation of this License, including but not limited to the Field of Use Restrictions of Section 8, the Indigenous Knowledge exclusion of Section 3.3, the FPIC obligations, or the third-party beneficiary rights of Place Communities under Section 10.

6.4. Patent grant

Subject to the terms of this License, each Licensor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this Section 6.4) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those Patent Claims licensable by such Licensor that are necessarily infringed by their contribution(s) alone or by combination of their contribution(s) with the Work to which such contribution(s) was submitted.

If You institute patent litigation against any Person (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed. This is the defensive-termination provision.

6.5. Sublicensing

Track A and Track B do not grant sublicensing rights. Sublicensing is available only under Track C and only as specifically set forth in the Track C Agreement.

Students enrolled in a Credentialed Educator's formal teaching context automatically inherit Track A rights for the duration of the educational engagement, and Track B rights to materials specifically created for that engagement. This automatic inheritance is not sublicensing within the meaning of this Section 6.5; the underlying license is held by the Steward and runs to the student directly.

Visitors and apprentices on a Designated Steward's Place automatically inherit Track A rights for the duration of their participation. This automatic inheritance is not sublicensing.

7. Conditions

7.1. Attribution. When You exercise any right under Track A, B, or C with respect to a Work, You shall include with every copy or substantial portion of the Work, and with every Derivative Work, the following:

(a) The original title of the Work and its version number; (b) The name of the originator(s) of the Work; (c) The name of the Steward; (d) A link to the Canonical URL of the Work; (e) The statement: "Licensed under the Regenerative Commons License v1.0, Track [A/B/C]"; (f) Where the copy or distribution is itself a Derivative Work, the notice required by Section 7.4.

Attribution may be provided in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, but may not be omitted.

7.2. Provenance preservation. Derivative Works must preserve the full provenance chain, including (i) the title, version, and originator of the original Work; (ii) the changelog or modification history sufficient to identify what was changed from the original; (iii) the names of all prior contributors who exercised Track B or Track C rights in the lineage leading to the present Work; and (iv) the date of each material modification.

7.3. Share-alike (Track B). If You distribute a Derivative Work created under Track B, You must license that Derivative Work under (i) the same Track of the same version of this License, (ii) a later version of this License with the same Track (at Your option), or (iii) a license declared compatible with this License by the Steward at the Compatibility Registry referenced in Section 12. This share-alike obligation does not apply to (x) Derivative Works distributed only for personal use and not made available to third parties; (y) Derivative Works that are mere format conversions; or (z) Derivative Works released only as Track A reference material.

7.4. Non-authoritative-derivative notice. Every Derivative Work shall carry, in a prominent place reasonable to the medium, the notice: "DERIVATIVE / NON-AUTHORITATIVE — does not claim conformance with VLAS, RCCS, or any associated standard published by the Steward." This notice may be removed only upon successful Gate 3 certification of the Derivative Work as conformant.

7.5. Registry registration. Track C Licensees shall register their Track C Agreements with the public Regenerative Commons Registry maintained by the Steward, with such registration including the names of the parties, the licensed scope, the Place Community of origin, the applicable Community Dividend rate, and any other terms the Steward deems necessary for public auditability. Track B Licensees are encouraged but not required to register their use; Track A Licensees are not required to register.

7.6. FPIC. Where any use of a Work, whether at Track A, B, or C, would operate in a Place, FPIC of the relevant Place Community is required, in accordance with international Indigenous rights law and the protocols published by the Steward. FPIC may be granted, withheld, conditioned, or withdrawn by the Place Community. Withdrawal of FPIC suspends the License for the affected use.

7.7. Indigenous data sovereignty. Where any Work, whether at Track A, B, or C, implicates Indigenous Knowledge, You shall (i) apply the relevant Local Contexts TK or BC Labels as designated by the Indigenous community of origin; (ii) honor the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics); and (iii) refrain from any commercial, derivative, or other use beyond that explicitly permitted by the Indigenous community of origin.

8. Field of Use Restrictions — what no Licensee may do

These restrictions apply to every Licensee, at every Gate, under every Track, regardless of Eligibility Path or any Track C Agreement. The Steward has no authority to waive these restrictions.

8.1. AI training restrictions. No Licensee shall, without a separate written agreement with the Steward:

(a) Train, fine-tune, distill, or build any AI model that issues, scores, verifies, prices, or substitutes for Verified Living Assets, RCCS credits, Five Capitals measurements, or NAV/INAV computations outside the formal VLAS conformance process; (b) Train, fine-tune, distill, or build any general-purpose AI foundation model using the Work as training data; (c) Train, fine-tune, or build any AI model intended for fossil fuel extraction optimization, industrial monoculture intensification, deforestation logistics, surveillance of communities or workers, military targeting, or financial speculation against the communities and Places referenced in the Work.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Licensees may build AI models that serve regenerative outcomes (including without limitation Life AI components, RCCS verification models, VLAS adapters, and community-controlled tools that serve a specific Place Community under FPIC) under Track B or Track C as applicable.

Licensees may use AI tools to perform internal analysis, retrieval, summarization, or research on the Work within their own operations without separate agreement, provided no model weights derived from such use are distributed or used to compete with the Work.

8.2. Anti-extraction. No Licensee shall use the Work to extract value from a Place without measurable regeneration of the Five Capitals in that Place over the same measurement period.

8.3. Anti-greenwashing. No Licensee shall make any "regenerative," "stewardship," "Verified Living Asset," "RCCS-compliant," "VLAS-conformant," or substantially equivalent public claim with respect to an implementation, work, product, service, or organization unless that claim is supported by the appropriate Gate certification under Section 5.

8.4. Prohibited use cases. No Licensee shall use the Work for:

(a) Weapons systems or military targeting; (b) Surveillance of communities, workers, or political activists; (c) Discrimination against persons on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, or other protected characteristic; (d) Deception of investors, lenders, or counterparties (anti-fraud); (e) Greenwashing, ESG-washing, or substantially equivalent misrepresentation; (f) Optimization of extraction industries, including fossil fuel extraction, industrial monoculture, and large-scale deforestation; (g) Commodification of Indigenous Knowledge; (h) Speculation against the communities or Places that the Work describes or measures.

8.5. Anti-financialization without conformance. No Licensee shall create any financial instrument (including without limitation securities, debt instruments, tokens, derivatives, or insurance products) that references RCL-licensed standards, methodologies, or data, unless the issuer (or, in the case of a derivative, the underlying reference) is conformant with VLAS under Gate 3.

8.6. Brand discipline. No Licensee shall use the trademarks, service marks, certification marks, or trade names of the Steward except as permitted by Section 11.

8.7. The Acceptable Use Policy. The AUP, incorporated by reference, may from time to time add specific use cases to the prohibitions in this Section 8. The AUP may not narrow or waive any prohibition of this Section 8. New AUP prohibitions take effect thirty (30) days after publication at the Canonical URL.

8.8. Goodhart's Law clause. Compliance with the letter of this Section 8 is necessary but not sufficient. The Steward retains discretion to terminate the License of a Licensee whose use, while not explicitly prohibited by clause 8.1 through 8.7, is in substance an attempt to extract value from the commons in violation of the regenerative spirit of this License. Such termination is subject to the dispute-resolution procedures of Section 14.

9. Reciprocity — value flows

9.1. Community Dividend (Track C). A Track C Licensee shall pay a Community Dividend equal to ten percent (10%) of the gross revenues attributable to the Licensed Work, computed on a cash basis, payable quarterly to the Place Community Fund of the bioregion of origin of the Work. The Track C Agreement shall specify (i) the identification of the bioregion of origin, (ii) the designated Place Community Fund receiving the payments, (iii) the methodology for attributing revenue to the Licensed Work, and (iv) the audit rights of the Steward and the Place Community.

The Steward may, in its discretion, approve a different Community Dividend rate in a specific Track C Agreement where the bioregion-of-origin attribution is genuinely indeterminate, the alternative rate is no less than five percent (5%), and the difference is allocated to a general Regenerative Commons Fund managed by the Steward.

9.2. Knowledge Commons Contribution (Track B, Credentialed Educator). A Credentialed Educator monetizing teaching, training, consulting, or other education-derived activities under Track B shall pay an annual Knowledge Commons Contribution to the Steward according to the following sliding scale, based on the Educator's education-derived gross revenue in the prior calendar year:

(a) Under $50,000 USD: $0; (b) $50,000 to $150,000 USD: $250; (c) $150,000 to $300,000 USD: $750; (d) $300,000 to $500,000 USD: $2,000; (e) Over $500,000 USD: the Educator shall convert to Track C or an Eligible Entity arrangement as set forth in Section 4.2.

The KCC is a flat contribution, not a percentage. The Steward shall use KCC receipts to operate the Commons Stewardship Office and the platform infrastructure.

9.3. Designated Steward dividend exemption. A Designated Steward operating Track B with respect to the stewarded Place owes no Community Dividend or KCC for activities concerning that Place. The Designated Steward is the dividend recipient class; obligating Stewards to pay themselves would be incoherent.

9.4. Improvement back-contribution (Track B and Track C). A Track B or Track C Licensee shall contribute substantive improvements (including without limitation methods, datasets, code, case studies, and translations) back to the Steward under this License within twelve (12) months of deployment in production use. Contribution shall be through the Reciprocity Ledger maintained by the Steward. The Steward shall acknowledge contributions and award Reciprocity Standing to contributors.

9.5. Reciprocity Standing. Reciprocity Standing is a non-monetary public record of a Licensee's contributions to the commons. Reciprocity Standing has no monetary value, is not transferable, and does not create any property right. Significant Reciprocity Standing may be considered by the Steward in awarding invitations to the Regen-Commons Council, the Standards Council, or other advisory roles.

9.6. Tax characterization. The Community Dividend and KCC are intended to function as obligations under contract, not as royalties for tax purposes; however, the parties acknowledge that tax characterization is fact-specific and shall be determined according to applicable law.

10. Place Communities as third-party beneficiaries

10.1. Standing. The Place Community of each bioregion implicated by a Licensed Work is a third-party beneficiary of this License with respect to that Work. The Place Community holds independent rights to enforce this License against the Steward, the Licensor, and any Licensee, including the right to:

(a) Bring suit for breach of any provision of this License affecting the Place Community; (b) Request and obtain disclosure of the License terms, the Community Dividend computation, the FPIC status, and the contribution history of any Track B or Track C Licensee operating in the Place; (c) Withdraw FPIC at any time, suspending the License with respect to operations in the Place; (d) Publish independent assessments through the Steward's platform regarding the Licensee's performance under the License.

10.2. Identification of the Place Community. The Place Community for any given Place is identified through the Story of Place process or equivalent recognition mechanism. Where multiple communities have legitimate claims, the Steward shall convene a recognition process under FPIC principles.

10.3. Indigenous communities. Where an Indigenous community is part of, or coterminous with, a Place Community, the Indigenous community holds the third-party beneficiary rights of this Section 10 independent of any non-Indigenous Place Community. The two sets of rights do not merge.

10.4. Future generations. The seventh-generation principle is incorporated as an interpretive standard for ambiguity in this License. Where a provision of this License is susceptible to multiple reasonable interpretations, the interpretation most consistent with the long-term well-being of future generations of the Place Community shall govern.

11. Marks and brand

11.1. Marks are not licensed under this License. The marks issued by the Steward at each Gate (the "Marks") are trademarks, service marks, or certification marks of the Steward. Use of the Marks is governed by this Section 11 and by the trademark guidelines published by the Steward at https://commons.zoen.earth/marks.

11.2. Permitted use. A Licensee holding a current License at the corresponding Gate may display the Mark, provided that:

(a) The Mark is displayed in connection with the Licensee's qualifying activity under the License; (b) The Mark is displayed in its authorized form, without alteration; (c) The Mark is accompanied by a verification identifier linking to the Steward's verification endpoint; (d) The Licensee does not represent that its goods, services, or organization are sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the Steward beyond the License relationship.

11.3. Revocation. The Steward may revoke any Mark at any time upon (i) revocation of the corresponding License under Section 13; (ii) misuse of the Mark; (iii) fraud, gaming, or measurement integrity failure; or (iv) other material breach of this License or the Trademark Guidelines. Revocation is independent of License termination; the Steward may revoke a Mark without terminating the License.

11.4. Public verification. Every Mark issued by the Steward is verifiable at the Steward's public verification endpoint. Verification returns the Licensee identity, the Gate level, the issuance date, and the current status (current, expired, revoked, lapsed). Members of the public are encouraged to verify any Mark they encounter.

12. Compatibility and interoperability

12.1. Incoming compatibility. Works released under the following licenses may be incorporated into RCL Works under the corresponding RCL Track:

(a) Works under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) may be incorporated into RCL Track A or Track B Works, with attribution preserved per the originating license; (b) Works under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) may be incorporated into RCL Track B Works only, with the share-alike obligations of CC BY-SA 4.0 satisfied by the share-alike obligations of Track B; (c) Software under the Apache License 2.0 or the MIT License may be incorporated into RCL Track B or Track C software Works, with the originating license preserved for the incorporated portions; (d) Works under the Peer Production License (Kleiner) may be incorporated into RCL Track B Works on terms substantially equivalent to (b).

12.2. Outgoing compatibility. RCL Works may not be re-released under a license that fails to carry the Field of Use Restrictions, the Community Dividend obligations (where applicable), the FPIC obligations, or the Place Community third-party beneficiary rights. This means in particular that RCL Works may not be re-released under CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, Apache 2.0, MIT, or any other license that does not preserve the commons obligations.

12.3. Compatibility Registry. The Steward maintains a public Compatibility Registry at https://commons.zoen.earth/compatibility listing additional licenses declared compatible with this License. The Steward may add or remove entries from the Compatibility Registry at any time. Removal does not affect prior incorporations.

12.4. VLAS-conformance dependency. No Compatibility Registry entry shall be construed as permitting Conformance Claims in a Derivative Work. Conformance Claims require Gate 3 certification under Section 5.3.

13. Termination

13.1. Automatic termination for breach. This License terminates automatically and without further notice upon:

(a) Any material breach of this License that is not cured within sixty (60) days after written notice of the breach is delivered to the Licensee; (b) Any use of the Work prohibited under Section 8 (Field of Use Restrictions); (c) Failure to pay any Community Dividend or KCC obligation that is not cured within sixty (60) days after written notice; (d) Any Conformance Claim made by the Licensee without the corresponding Gate certification; (e) Material misrepresentation in attestation, attribution, or provenance; (f) Institution by the Licensee of patent litigation as described in Section 6.4 (defensive termination).

13.2. Cure period. The sixty (60) day cure period of Section 13.1 does not apply to violations of Section 8 (Field of Use Restrictions) or to Indigenous Knowledge violations under Section 3.3 or Section 7.7, which are incurable.

13.3. Effect of termination. Upon termination, all rights granted to You under this License cease immediately. You shall (i) cease all use of the Work, (ii) cease all display of the Marks, (iii) destroy or return all copies of the Work in Your possession (except for archival copies required by law), and (iv) cooperate with the Steward in any wind-down of operations in any Place.

13.4. Survival. The following Sections survive termination: Section 1 (Definitions), Section 7.1 (Attribution, for any reproduction already in the public domain), Section 7.2 (Provenance preservation, for prior distributions), Section 8 (Field of Use Restrictions, for any continuing use), Section 9.1 (Community Dividend, for accrued amounts), Section 10 (Place Community standing, with respect to past activities), Section 13 (this Section), Section 14 (Dispute Resolution), and Section 15 (Governing Law).

13.5. Reinstatement. A terminated Licensee may apply to the Steward for reinstatement after a waiting period of one hundred eighty (180) days from termination, by demonstrating cure of the underlying breach and committing to enhanced compliance terms. Reinstatement is at the Steward's discretion.

13.6. Lapse vs. termination. Lapse of a Credential (for example, an Educator leaving full-time education) is not termination of the License. A Licensee whose Credential lapses reverts to the rights of Track A (Gate 1 self-attestation) until the Credential is renewed or until the Licensee qualifies under another Eligibility Path.

14. Dispute resolution

14.1. Mediation first. Any dispute arising out of or relating to this License shall be submitted in the first instance to mediation through a Regenerative Mediation Panel convened by the Steward. The Panel shall consist of three mediators, one selected by each party and the third by the first two. Mediation shall be conducted under the Panel's published procedures.

14.2. Arbitration. If mediation fails to resolve the dispute within ninety (90) days of submission, the dispute shall be submitted to binding arbitration under the rules of JAMS or, where the parties agree, another internationally recognized arbitration body. Arbitration shall be conducted in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, or such other location as the parties agree. The language of arbitration shall be English unless the parties agree otherwise; provided, however, that an Indigenous party shall have the right to present testimony in their language of choice with qualified interpretation.

14.3. Indigenous law and customary law. In disputes involving Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous lands, or matters affecting Indigenous communities, the Indigenous law and customary law of the Indigenous community implicated shall be honored. Where Indigenous law conflicts with the substantive provisions of this License or applicable state law, the arbitrators shall give substantial weight to the Indigenous law in shaping the remedy.

14.4. Place Community standing in disputes. A Place Community asserting rights as a third-party beneficiary under Section 10 may participate in mediation and arbitration as a party.

14.5. Standing to enforce. The following Persons have standing to enforce this License: (i) the Steward; (ii) the Licensor of the affected Work; (iii) the Place Community of origin, as a third-party beneficiary under Section 10; (iv) any Indigenous community whose Indigenous Knowledge is implicated. No other Person has standing to enforce this License.

14.6. Equitable relief. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Steward, a Licensor, a Place Community, or an Indigenous community may seek immediate injunctive or other equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent or remedy a violation of Section 8 (Field of Use Restrictions) or a violation of Indigenous Knowledge protections under Section 3.3 or Section 7.7, prior to or in addition to mediation and arbitration.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

15.1. Governing law. This License shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States of America, without regard to its conflict of laws principles.

15.2. Carve-outs. Notwithstanding Section 15.1:

(a) Indigenous law and the customary law of the Indigenous community implicated shall govern any matter affecting Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous lands, or Indigenous community rights; (b) The law of the Place where a Licensed Work is deployed shall govern matters of land tenure, environmental regulation, and labor with respect to that deployment; (c) Where a Chapter has published a jurisdictional appendix to this License, the appendix governs matters specifically addressed by it for Licensees within the Chapter's region.

15.3. No waiver of sovereign rights. Nothing in this License waives, limits, or otherwise affects the sovereign rights of any Indigenous nation, government, or international body.

16. Miscellaneous

16.1. Entire agreement. This License, the AUP, the applicable Trademark Guidelines, and (where applicable) a Track C Agreement constitute the entire agreement between You and the Steward and the relevant Licensors with respect to the Work. The Deed is a summary and does not constitute additional terms.

16.2. Severability. If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect, and the unenforceable provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to render it enforceable, while preserving its essential character.

16.3. No waiver. No failure or delay by the Steward in enforcing any provision of this License shall constitute a waiver. Waivers must be express and in writing.

16.4. Assignment. You may not assign this License or any rights or obligations under it without the prior written consent of the Steward. The Steward may assign this License upon transition of the Steward role from RDC to the VLAS Trust, or thereafter as expressly authorized by the VLAS Trust governance.

16.5. Notices. Notices to the Steward shall be sent to the address published at the Canonical URL. Notices to a Licensee shall be sent to the contact information provided at registration.

16.6. Versioning. The Steward may publish updated versions of this License. Each version shall be identified by a distinct version number. Existing Licensees continue under the version they accepted unless they affirmatively accept a new version, except that the AUP may be updated unilaterally per Section 8.7. The Steward will not retroactively impose new restrictions on prior versions, though the Steward may publish clarifications, errata, and translations without bumping the version number.

16.7. Language. This License is published in English. Translations may be made available; in any conflict between a translation and the English text, the English text controls. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Indigenous-language editions may be designated as authoritative for purposes of Indigenous community disputes by mutual agreement of the Steward and the relevant Indigenous community.

16.8. No partnership. Nothing in this License creates a partnership, agency, joint venture, employment relationship, or franchise between You and the Steward, except as a Track C Agreement may expressly provide.

16.9. Force majeure. Neither party shall be liable for delays or failures in performance resulting from acts or events beyond the reasonable control of the affected party, including without limitation natural disasters, war, civil unrest, and government action — provided that obligations of payment and obligations to preserve Indigenous Knowledge and FPIC shall not be subject to force majeure relief.

17. How to apply this License

To apply this License to a Work You create, attach the following notice to the Work, replacing the bracketed fields:

Copyright (c) [year] [originator name(s)]

This work is licensed under the Regenerative Commons License v1.0, Track [A/B/C].
The work is dedicated to the regeneration of [place / bioregion / domain].

Full license: https://commons.zoen.earth/license/v1.0
Acceptable Use Policy: https://commons.zoen.earth/aup
Attribution: [originator] · [Steward: Regenerative Development Corp / VLAS Trust] · v[version]
DERIVATIVE / NON-AUTHORITATIVE unless certified under VLAS Gate 3.

Place Community of origin: [identification]
FPIC status: [granted / pending / not applicable]
Indigenous Knowledge: [applies per TK Label [code] / does not apply]

For Derivative Works, also include the provenance chain required by Section 7.2.

18. Acknowledgments

This License draws on prior work, including without limitation:

  • The Creative Commons license family (attribution, share-alike framework)
  • The Apache License 2.0 (patent grant, defensive termination)
  • The Llama 2 Community License (use-based restrictions, external Acceptable Use Policy by reference)
  • The OpenRAIL license family (responsible AI use restrictions)
  • The Peer Production License (commons-based reciprocity)
  • The Local Contexts framework (Indigenous data sovereignty)
  • The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Global Indigenous Data Alliance)
  • The Eclipse Public License 2.0 (reciprocity with patent grant)
  • The SIL Open Font License 1.1 (derivative naming controls)

The authors of these prior licenses are acknowledged with gratitude. This License is not a fork or extension of any of them; it is an independent license drawing on their lessons.

19. Signature of the Steward

Issued by:        Regenerative Development Corp
                  [as interim Steward, transitioning to the VLAS Trust]

Effective:        [Publication date — TBD upon Wave 1 launch]

Canonical URL:    https://commons.zoen.earth/license/v1.0

Version:          1.0
Identifier:       RCL-1.0
Document hash:    [SHA-256 hash, computed at publication]

For the Steward: _____________________________
                 Founder-Architect

Witnessed by:    _____________________________
                 Counsel

This License is dedicated to the regeneration of life. Zoē is life. Living is zoen.

Life before profits.

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