Auditable Commercial License (ACL) v1.0
摘要
介绍一种面向 AI 时代的源码可得商业许可证 ACL v1.0。该许可证明确赋予用户阅读、审查和审计源码的权利；新增 AI 训练保护条款，禁止将许可作品用作 AI 训练数据，并包含安全港和向 AI 供应商的流转义务；每个发布版本在四年后自动转为 Apache 2.0，避免对许可方善意的永久依赖。文章对比了 Apache 2.0、BUSL 1.1、Elastic 2.0 等许可证，突出 ACL 在 AI 训练保护、自动转换、内置层级结构和企业 IP 赔偿等方面的差异，并提供许可证生成器。核心 AI 训练条款包含知情禁止、普通 AI 工具使用的安全港以及无需监控即可触达供应商关系的流转义务。
荐读理由
直接生成一份带 AI 训练保护条款的源码可用许可证，填入五个值即可下载 LICENSE.md 放入仓库，4 年后该版本自动转为 Apache 2.0，防止你的代码被 AI 供应商抓取训练。
原文
ACL · Version 1.0 · 2026
A source-available commercial license for the AI era.
Read, run, and modify the source internally. No redistribution, no hosted service. Every version becomes Apache 2.0 in four years — with the AI-training protection older commercial licenses were never built to address.
Generate your license → Read the full text
Three differences that matter
What makes this license different from the ones that came before it.
01 / AUDITABLE
Source available by right, not by favor.
Licensees may read, review, and audit the source code for security, compliance, and operational purposes — the rights enterprise buyers and regulated industries actually need, written in explicitly rather than implied.
02 / AI-PROTECTED
The clause the others forgot.
Section 2.3 prohibits use of the Licensed Work as AI training data, with a knowledge qualifier, a safe harbor for ordinary AI-tool use, and a flow-through obligation to AI vendors. The first commercially drafted clause built for the agent era.
03 / SELF-EXPIRING
Apache 2.0 in four years. Automatic.
Every released version automatically converts to the Apache License, Version 2.0 on the fourth anniversary of its public release. Adopters are never permanently dependent on the licensor's goodwill for any given version.
How it compares
Against the licenses you would otherwise reach for.
| Apache 2.0 | BUSL 1.1 | Elastic 2.0 | PolyForm | ACL 1.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source available | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blocks hosted-service competition | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| AI training protection | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Auto-converts to OSI license | N/A | After 4y | No | No | After 4y |
| Tier structure built in | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Enterprise IP indemnification | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Contributor patent grant | Yes | Partial | Partial | No | Yes |
Generate your license
Fill in five values. Download a license ready for counsel review.
Identity
The individual or entity that owns and distributes the Licensed Work.
Jurisdiction (Section 8.1)
City and state/country where courts have exclusive jurisdiction.
Notices (Section 8.7) — optional
Published separately on your website or README; not embedded in the license body by default.
Release metadata — for header & notice
Change Date is automatically set to four years after this date.
Live preview
Section 8.1 — Governing Law copy
Source-file header copy
Distribution notice copy
Legal notices block copy
Download your customized license Renders as LICENSE.md — drop it at the root of your repository.
The clause that defines it
Section 2.3 — the AI training clause.
Commercial source-available licenses were drafted for a world that didn't have autonomous code assistants. BUSL in 2017. Elastic 2.0 in 2021. None addresses the threat that now matters most — that the act of working with source code, using the tools developers actually use, quietly becomes an act of exfiltration into someone else's model.
This license addresses it. Three layers: a knowledge-qualified prohibition, a safe harbor for ordinary AI-tool use, and a flow-through obligation that reaches the vendor relationship without requiring surveillance.
The clause is not proprietary. Adopt it, adapt it, improve it. What matters is that the category has one — because every commercial license drafted in 2026 and 2027 will eventually need it, and the version that becomes standard will be the version written with the enforcement problem in mind.
Read the full essay on Substack →
The full text
Auditable Commercial License v1.0 — complete.
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