Sunset Protocol License
(A non-commercial license with time-delayed MIT fallback)

Copyright (c) 2026 protocol_1903

The purpose of this License is to encourage open collaboration while
protecting actively maintained software against commercial exploitation and
AI training, with a guaranteed transition to the MIT License after a defined
period of stewardship.

## 1. Grant of License

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, permission is hereby
granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and
associated documentation files (the "Software"), to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, and distribute the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

## 2. Definitions

## 2.1 Derivative Works

For the purposes of this License, **Derivative Works** means any work that is
based upon or derived from the Software, in whole or in part, including but
not limited to modifications, adaptations, translations, abridgments,
extensions, or any other form in which the Software may be recast, transformed,
or built upon.

Derivative Works include, without limitation:
(a) any modification of the source code or compiled form of the Software;
(b) any work that incorporates the Software, in whole or in substantial part,
into another program or project; and
(c) any work that is designed to extend, modify, or make use of the
Software’s internal structure, logic, or functionality.

For the avoidance of doubt, Derivative Works do not include works that merely
interact with the Software through its public interfaces without
incorporating any portion of the Software itself, such as independent
programs that use the Software as an external tool or service.

## 2.2 Release

For the purposes of this License, a **Release** means a version of the
Software intentionally made publicly available by the copyright holder under
this License together with a corresponding publication date.

The **Original Release** is the earliest Release of the Software under this
License.

The **Most Recent Release** is the latest Release of the Software under this
License.

For the avoidance of doubt, unpublished revisions, private distributions,
pre-release builds, development snapshots, continuous integration artifacts,
or versions made available solely for testing or review do not constitute a
Release unless expressly designated as such by the copyright holder.

## 3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Restrictions

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, no rights are granted to
use, reproduce, process, analyze, copy, or otherwise exploit the Software or
any Derivative Works, in whole or in part, for the purpose of developing,
training, evaluating, benchmarking, adapting, or otherwise improving any
artificial intelligence or machine learning system, including but not limited
to foundation models, large language models, neural networks, or substantially
similar automated learning systems.

Without limitation, the foregoing prohibition includes the use of the
Software or any Derivative Works as:
(a) training data or training corpus;
(b) evaluation, benchmark, or test data;
(c) fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, supervised learning, unsupervised
learning, self-supervised learning, or transfer learning input;
(d) a source for synthetic data generation, model distillation, retrieval
datasets, embeddings, or vector databases intended to support or improve
automated learning systems; or
(e) any dataset, corpus, or collection of works intended, directly or
indirectly, to develop, evaluate, or improve the capabilities of an
artificial intelligence or machine learning system.

This restriction applies regardless of whether the Software or any
Derivative Works are used in their original form, in modified form, in
compiled form, in extracted or transformed form, or as part of a larger
collection or dataset.

Any activity prohibited by this Section requires the prior written
permission of the copyright holder.

## 4. Commercial Use Restrictions

The Software or Derivative Works may not be sold, licensed for a fee, or
otherwise distributed in whole or in part, in exchange for monetary
compensation or any other form of consideration.

## 5. Redistribution and Distribution Rights

You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Software or any Derivative
Works in whole or in part, in any medium, provided that you comply with all
terms and conditions of this License.

Any such distribution must include a complete copy of this License, must
retain all copyright and license notices, and must provide appropriate
attribution to the original author(s).

## 6. Attribution

Attribution must include, at minimum:
(a) the name of the original author(s),
(b) a reference to this License,
(c) a link to the original source or repository of the Software, if one is
publicly available, and
(d) presentation in a reasonable manner that does not suggest endorsement
by the original author(s).

## 7. Licensing of Derivative Works

You may apply additional or different license terms to Derivative Works that
you create, provided that such terms are consistent with, subordinate to, and
do not restrict, override, or conflict with the requirements and limitations
of this License as they apply to the Software or any portions thereof.

## 8. Time-Limited MIT License Fallback

Time-Limited License Fallback (Attribution-Preserving):
Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, this Software shall,
after the earliest of:
(a) a period of 2 years from the date of the Most Recent Release; or
(b) a period of 10 years from the date of the Original Release;
be made available under the terms of the MIT License, subject to the
additional requirements that:
(a) the name of the original author(s) is retained, and
(b) a link to the original source or repository of the Software is included,
where reasonably possible.

Upon the effectiveness of the MIT License under this Section, this
License shall terminate and the Software shall thereafter be governed
solely by the MIT License, subject only to the attribution requirements
set forth in this Section.

## 9. Reserved Rights

Except as expressly granted by this License, all rights in and to the
Software are reserved by the copyright holder.

No license, permission, or other right shall be implied from the public
availability of the Software, from any distribution of the Software, or
from any failure by the copyright holder to enforce any provision of
this License.

Any use not expressly permitted by this License requires the prior
written permission of the copyright holder.

## 10. Termination

Any failure to comply with the terms of this License will automatically
terminate the rights granted herein.

## 11. Disclaimer of Warranty and Limitation of Liability

THE SOFTWARE 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 NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
