# The Mutualist License v1.3 **© 2026 ** **Short ID: MutuaL-1.3** or **MutuaL-1.3-only** *(A Short ID that does not end in “-only” allows upgrades. **MutuaL-1.3-or-later** means the same as **MutuaL-1.3**. You may remove this parenthetical after you set the Short ID.)* “Mutualist License” and “MutuaL” should be seen as the same name everywhere one of them is used after this. Everyone is allowed to share copies of this license, as long as the text stays exactly as written, apart from the Credit block and the Short ID, which you complete. Changes to formatting, such as fonts, spacing, or layout, are fine. Clearly marked excerpts, quotations, and commentary are also fine. You may not change the terms of this license and still call it the Mutualist License. You are free to use this text as a starting point for your own license under a different name. If you do, credit back to us is appreciated, but not required. This license is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. --- ## Credit **Name of this software:** (name) **Project home:** (link) **Original copyright holder(s):** (name(s)) ## Purpose This license’s goal is to allow you to use this software as freely as possible, while protecting the people who make it from harm and making sure everyone plays fair. As long as you follow all of this license’s rules, you can use, run, study, copy, change, share, or sell this software for any reason, without having to ask permission first. This section is only here to explain why the Mutualist License exists. It is not a rule or permission by itself. Those are found in the sections to follow. MutuaL is a [flipped form](https://flippedform.com/) in everyday English. If something doesn’t make sense, that’s MutuaL’s fault, not yours. Please [open an issue](https://tangled.org/katsuricata.com/Mutualist-License/issues) so we can fix it. ## Acceptance To receive any benefits from this license, you must agree to all of its rules. These rules are the conditions of the deal. If you do not follow the rules, you do not have a license for that use. Redemption may give you a chance to fix the problem and keep your rights. Innovation does not give you that chance. Do not use this software if you cannot or will not follow these rules. Please read this license as a whole; different sections rely on each other to make sense. You agree to these rules if you **use, run, study, copy, change, share, or sell** this software in any way that normally needs permission. From now on, we’ll just use “**use**” when we want to refer to this long list. When bolded, “**use**” should always be read to mean the full list in this paragraph. ## Generosity The copyright holders and contributors allow you to **use** this software and do everything with it that would otherwise infringe their copyright and related rights. You must follow this license’s rules to get and keep these rights. This license, by itself, does not give you any rights to use any names, logos, or trademarks in promotion. ## Symmetry This section should be read as a basic contributor agreement. It describes what you agree to when you contribute changes to this software, separate from your rights as a user or distributor. If you change this software and then make your changes available to anyone who makes or shares this software, you license those changes under this same license for everyone. You “make them available” when you: - open a pull request, merge request, or patch submission, - post them in a public project space, forum, or issue tracker, - include them in any public sharing, or - let people use them in the project. Your license for your changes applies only to the parts you made or changed. It does not apply to separate code you mixed with your changes unless you own that code or have permission to license it this way. By making your changes available, you promise that: - you have the right to share those changes under this license, and - you are not adding code that you do not have the right to license under this license. If someone claims your changes include code they own or that needs different terms, that dispute is between you and the person making the claim. Other contributors and copyright holders are not responsible for verifying your contributions. ## Notice Everyone who receives a copy of this software from you, with or without changes, must also receive: - this license or a [link to it](https://mutualist.dev), and - the current Credit block from the copy you received, if any. If you share the license by link only, you must also keep the Short ID visible in the project, so recipients can tell which version applies and whether upgrades are allowed. You may include the license and Credit in any reasonable way. For example, you can put them in a “LICENSE” file, a document, an about box, or another place where people normally look for license and copyright information. You may add your own Credit, or update facts in the Credit block, if: - you keep the original Credit block somewhere in the project, and - you do not suggest that anyone approves of you or your changes unless they actually do. If you add Credit, the original Credit block must be at least as easy to find. If the copy you received didn’t have a Credit block, you do not have to add one. If you want, you can still add one for your own changes. If you are the first to share this software under this license, fill in the Credit block with real details. If you receive a copy whose Credit block still has placeholders, you may remove the placeholders without breaking this rule. Metadata like SPDX® headers count as a “reasonable way” to follow this section’s rules about including the license. An SPDX® header must use the full Short ID, so people can tell which version applies and whether upgrades are allowed. ## Mutualism If you share this software or software based on it, you must use this same license for any copies that you share and follow the Notice rule. This applies whether or not you’ve made changes. You must not add rules to these copies that would limit or take away the rights people get under this license. You must not add technical measures to this software that are designed or used mostly to stop others from using their own rights under this license. You are allowed to use security measures whose purpose is to protect users, systems, or data, and that do not stop people from using their rights under this license. If you change this software or create software based on it, and allow others (as defined in Clarity) to interact with it over a network, like the internet, you must give them a clear and easy way to get the source code and this license. The source code must be for that exact version. For example, you can add a clear link in the user interface that lets them download the source for the version they’re using. You must keep that source available for as long as you are letting others interact with a modified version over a network. If you stop running or offering that modified version, you no longer need to offer source. If you start offering a modified version again later, you must provide the source code again. If you run an unchanged copy of this software over a network, and others can use it directly as you offer it, you do not have to provide source code. To use this exception, you must keep any links or references to this software’s home that were already present. You do not have to add new links to the software’s home if none were included when you received your copy. This exception is for straightforward hosting: someone connects to your instance and gets this software as it was made, with no separate layer of your own software between them and it. It does not apply if this software is a backend or hidden component of a different product or service you have built, or if what users primarily interact with is something you made that depends on this software to run. If you run software over a network for others, and that software depends on this software for core functionality, you must also follow the rules above for sharing source code for this software, as if you were sharing this software itself. This applies even if others never use this software directly, and even if your copy of this software is unchanged. Here, *others* and *core functionality* have the meanings given in Clarity. This rule does not apply when this software is merely a tool (like an operating system, compiler, or utility) that happens to be used in the stack but is not a core part of what makes the service valuable to users. If you share this software or software based on it with others in a form people install and run themselves (including as part of an application you built it into), you must also offer them the source code for the MutuaL-licensed parts, including any changes you made. You can do this by including the source code with the copy you share, or by letting them know about a standard, no-cost way to get the source code over a network. Any time you must provide others with source code, it must not require separate contracts or extra terms beyond this license. ## Innovation Every copyright holder and contributor, and everyone who gives you this software under this license, also gives you a patent license to **use** this software as this license allows. It covers any patents they own or control that you would infringe by **using** the software as this license allows. If they later get new patents, or take control of patents they did not have before, those patents are also covered if they would be infringed by **using** this software as this license allows. If you start what we will call a *patent attack*, you immediately and permanently lose **all** rights under this license for this software. A *patent attack* means starting a patent lawsuit or making a legal demand (such as a cease-and-desist letter or a request for royalty payment). For an action to count as a patent attack, *all* of the following must be true: - The action claims that someone **using** this software (or software based on it, or any contribution to it) has infringed a patent you own or control, a patent owned or controlled by an entity you control, or a patent you arrange, fund, or encourage someone else to use. - The action is aimed at someone who is **using** this software under this license. - The person you are suing or demanding from has accepted this license for that use. ### What is not a patent attack A patent attack does *not* include legal actions against people who don’t have rights under this license. For example: - Someone who never accepted this license, or - Someone who lost their rights under Redemption and did not fix the problem in time, or - Someone who already lost their rights under this Innovation section in a past patent attack. None of these count as patent attacks. ### Defense exception This rule does not apply if you are only defending yourself. You are only defending yourself if *all* of the following are true: - Someone else sued you first over patents about this software (or software based on it). - You were following this license’s rules when they sued you. - Your response stays within that same dispute, or a dispute covering the same core issue. If you meet all three conditions above, you may: - Argue that their patent is invalid, not infringed by your **use**, or can’t be enforced, and/or - Bring a counterclaim or cross-claim about their **use** of this software (or software based on it). If you do anything beyond these defensive actions in that dispute or a dispute covering the same core issue, or if you start a separate patent action, this exception does not apply. ### Unrelated patent cases This rule also does not apply to patent cases that are only about software or technology clearly unrelated to this software, which does not include it or software based on it. This patent rule does not affect any other rights you might have under other agreements for the same software. ## Cooperation You are allowed to link or combine this software with other software licensed under different terms if that other software’s license gives everyone the rights to **use** it, and lets anyone have, use, change, and share its source code. Another version of the Mutualist License can be the other license here, as long as the parts stay separable. If the other software’s license fits that description, the Mutualism rule changes. MutuaL still applies to *this* software; however, it does not force you to share the *other* software’s source code. You must still follow the source sharing and network rules from Mutualism for the MutuaL-licensed parts, but you do not have to license the combined work as a whole under this license. If the other software does not meet that condition (for example, if it is closed source), this Cooperation exception does not apply. In that case, the full Mutualism rule applies to the entire combined work. This exception only applies if the *source code* remains separable. Separable means the MutuaL-licensed source code stays in its own identifiable files, separate from other source files, and is not mixed in a way that prevents easy separation. Code becomes inseparable when: - it is copy-pasted across file boundaries, or - source files are merged so the MutuaL-licensed portions cannot be spotted and separated by reasonable effort. If the source code becomes inseparable, the full Mutualism rule applies to everything. Static and dynamic linking are both allowed under this exception as long as the *source* files remain separate and identifiable. Compilation into a binary does not count as inseparable mixing. Any license that fits the [Free Software Definition](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) or [Open Source Definition](https://opensource.org/osd) automatically meets this condition. This is not the only way for a license to qualify. This exception is offered by the Mutualist License, but please make sure the other license also plays nice by allowing this on its end. Ask a legal expert if you are unsure. ## Redemption If any copyright holder of this software lets you know in writing that you have not followed any of the rules of this license *except* for Innovation, you can keep your license by fixing the problem. To start a Redemption period, a notice must: - come from a copyright holder of this software, - reasonably identify which rule or rules were broken, so you know what to fix, - say which copies or versions are affected, and - clearly state that your rights may end if you do not fix the problem within 30 days. The claims made in the notice must be accurate. If a notice is not accurate in a material way, it does not start the Redemption period, and you do not lose your rights because of it. A copyright holder may send you a corrected notice, and a corrected notice starts a new Redemption period. Not receiving a valid notice does not excuse you from following this license. To fix the problem, you must, within 30 days after you receive the notice: - stop doing the thing that breaks the rules of this license, and - do what is needed to fix the mistake and make things right, such as giving people missing source code, Notice, or license copies. If you do this in time, your rights under this license continue as if you never broke its rules. You have done this successfully either when the person who let you know agrees with your fix, or when you have let them know about your fix but they have not responded after seven days. If these seven days extend beyond the 30-day Redemption period, the Redemption period extends to cover this time. Once you have successfully fixed a mistake under this section, no one can use that same past mistake to start a new Redemption period against you. If you do not do this in time, all your rights under this license for this software end automatically at the end of the Redemption period. Any copyright holder may give you a new license for their own parts of this software, but they do not have to, and nobody can do it for them. A new license must be in writing. If your rights end under this section, the rights of others who received this software from you under this license do not end, as long as those others follow this license. You do not get this Redemption period if you break the Innovation rule. In that case, your rights under this license end immediately and permanently when you start the patent attack. ## Reliability This license, along with its rights and grants, lasts forever. No one can revoke them or ask you to stop using the software, except where this license states that your rights may end (for example, under Innovation and Redemption). The law likes to see certain terms here, so legally speaking: this counts as a **worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free** license that lasts as long as copyright, related rights, and patent law allow, unless otherwise ended under this license. ## Foresight **If you are using this license for your own software, please read this section carefully and choose the Short ID that matches what you actually want.** New versions of the Mutualist License may be released over time. You can tell a version is newer by its higher number. Each copy of the software will say which version it uses, and whether upgrades are allowed, in its Short ID at the top of the license. If your copy’s Short ID ends with “-only”, you must follow that exact version and not a later one. If it ends with “-or-later”, or does not end with “-only”, you may follow that version or any later one. A later version only counts as a later version for this rule if it is an official release at the license’s home, as described in Clarity. It must also avoid adding restrictions that would make someone who follows this version non-compliant. A version that adds such restrictions does not apply to you, even if it has a higher number. If you combine code under different versions into a single inseparable work, the newest version that applies to any part of it applies to the whole work. Code marked “-only” is the exception. You may combine it with other code under that exact same version, whether or not that other code allows upgrades. When you do, the combined work stays under that version, and the “-only” rule wins: the combined work does not upgrade. Every MutuaL-licensed part of that combined work must be marked “-only”. You cannot combine “-only” code with code under a different version into a single inseparable work. This rule about mixing versions does not stop you from linking or combining separate parts as Cooperation allows. Updating the license in the software does not change the license for copies you already received. If you change the version in a copy you publish, you may only move to a higher version number, never a lower one. ## Clarity When this license says *we* or *us,* it means the authors of this license text, not the copyright holders of any software that uses it. By *this software,* we mean the software named in the Credit block above, including both its source code and any form built from that source code. By *software based on this software,* we mean work that fits the legal definition of a derivative work under copyright law. Software is not *based on this software* if it only runs alongside it or talks to it through a *standard interface.* This license does not touch separate software. By *source code,* we mean the best form for making changes. This includes the code itself, plus the scripts and files needed to build, install, connect, and run it. By *share,* we mean giving copies of this software or software based on it to someone else, in any form, by any method, for free or for compensation. By *copyright and related rights,* we mean copyright plus neighboring rights, database rights, and similar rights in any country. By *copyright holder,* we mean anyone who owns copyright or related rights in any part of this software, or in software based on it. By *infringe,* we mean to do something that copyright, patent, or related law says only the rights holder may do or allow, without the rights holder’s permission. By *standard interface,* we mean a public way for software to talk to other software. This includes things like APIs, protocols, or file formats. It must be documented in a way that allows independent implementation, and available for anyone in the general public to use. By *others,* we mean any person, company, or group that is not you, and not part of the same single legal entity as you. - If you are acting as an individual, “others” means people you don’t live with *and* who aren’t part of your immediate family. Regardless of how your jurisdiction defines “immediate family”, your spouse, romantic partner(s), parents, siblings, and children always count as part of your immediate family as far as this license is concerned. - If you are acting for a legal entity, “others” are anyone outside that entity. Contractors do not count as “others” while they are: - Under direct contract to do specific work for you, AND - Bound by confidentiality obligations to your entity, AND - Working under your direction and control (not as an independent service provider) Once a contractor’s work ends or these conditions no longer apply, they become “others” if they retain access to the software. - Public users, customers, clients, federated groups, and unrelated organizations always count as “others”, even if access to the service is limited, invite-only, or requires registration. - Cloud providers, CDNs, and similar outside services do not count as “others” or a group that “shares” the software if they just run or deliver what you tell them to. We need to use *legal entity* here, but it means a company, non-profit, or organization that the law treats as a single person. By *core functionality,* we mean the essential features that make a service valuable to its users. Software provides core functionality to a service when the service could not operate in its current form without it, and the software provides substantial functionality that the service’s users benefit from. A version of the software is *unchanged* if you have not modified any part of its code or build configuration in a way that creates a derivative work under copyright or related rights. Changing only how the software is configured does not count as modifying its code or build configuration. This includes setting environment variables, editing configuration files, adjusting settings through the software’s own interface, choosing which optional build features to include, and setting build-time flags. A copy stays unchanged even if you configured it for your environment or use case. By *in writing,* we mean a physical document or digital message. It must clearly show who sent it and what they mean. The license’s home is . It was previously at . Only the authors of this license, or a successor they name in writing, may name a future home. An *official release* is a version published as a release or a tagged release at the license’s home. Development drafts, commits, and pull requests do not count, even if they appear at the home. A version of the Mutualist License only counts for Foresight if it is an official release at the license’s home, or at a future home named that way. This license is only valid in English. If a court or regulatory body looks at it, they must use the English text. Translations are just for help and have no legal power. ## Holism If any part of this license is invalid or can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. The invalid part will be changed to make it valid if possible. If it can’t be fixed, that part will be removed, but the rest of the license stays in effect. ## Non-Liability **Unless the law requires otherwise, or unless agreed in a separate signed writing, this software is provided “AS IS.”** **No copyright holder, contributor, or distributor makes any promises about the software. They do not guarantee that it works perfectly. This includes, but is not limited to, the legal warranties of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.** **Unless the law requires otherwise, NO COPYRIGHT HOLDER, CONTRIBUTOR, OR DISTRIBUTOR IS RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR ANY KIND OF LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT COMES FROM USING THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THEY KNEW IT COULD HAPPEN. This includes things like lost data, broken systems, or money you lose because the software did not work the way you hoped.** **You are the one who has to decide if this software is safe or right for you to use or share. You take all the risks when you use it.**