LICENSE

EARTHIAN STEWARDSHIP LICENSE (ESL-A)
Version 0.1 – 2025
Copyright © 2025-2026 Mathew Mark Mytka

PART I — EARTHIAN PREAMBLE

This work arises from a lineage of curiosity, care, and responsibility toward life in all its forms. It is grounded in the understanding that cognition is not contained within individuals but emerges through relationship — between people, place, machines, ancestors, ecosystems, and the more-than-human world.

The systems, models, and tools in this repository are instruments for sensing and shaping the relational field. As such, they participate in the nervous systems, meanings, emotions, and possibilities of those who use them. They carry the potential to heal or to harm.

This license is an invitation to use these tools in service of:

- human dignity and flourishing,
- somatic sovereignty,
- ecological wellbeing,
- regenerative futures,
- kinship with Earth and all beings,
- collective moral imagination,
- and the stewardship of relational technology.

This work may not be used in ways that fracture, dominate, extract, or manipulate the living systems of which we are each a part.

This preamble is not enforceable legal text. It is a reminder that technology is always a moral act, and that those who choose to engage with this work share responsibility for the worlds it helps bring into being.

PART II — LICENSE TERMS (Binding Conditions)

1. Definitions

"The Work" refers to all code, documentation, models, and assets in this repository except portions explicitly marked as MIT-licensed upstream derivatives.
"Earthian Stewardship License" or "ESL-A" refers to this license.
"Non-Commercial Use" means use for research, education, personal study, community projects, or non-profit purposes, where no revenue is generated and where the Work is not part of a commercial service, product, or pipeline.
"Commercial Use" means any use of the Work that involves revenue generation, paid services, monetised models, integrations into proprietary systems, or use within a commercial entity.
"Somatic Data" includes physiological signals, biosensing data, emotional markers, and any information derived from the nervous system of a human subject.
"Relational Systems" includes any system where the Work interacts with humans, AI models, other beings, or environments in ways that could influence cognition, emotion, or behaviour.

2. License Grant (Non-Commercial)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the Work, to use, view, study, copy, modify, and distribute the Work strictly for Non-Commercial Use, subject to the conditions below.

3. Commercial Use Requires Permission

Commercial use of the Work, or any derivative of it, is prohibited unless explicit written permission is granted by the copyright holder.

This includes but is not limited to:

- integrating the Work into commercial software,
- offering services built upon the Work,
- bundling the Work with proprietary models or pipelines,
- training or fine-tuning AI systems using the Work,
- commercial biometric or affective computing products.

Custom commercial licensing is available by contacting the copyright holder.

4. Stewardship Obligations (Non-Commercial Users)

Any non-commercial user of the Work must:

1. Respect somatic sovereignty — refrain from using the Work to manipulate, coerce, entrain, or dysregulate the nervous systems of others.
2. Respect ecological and cultural contexts — the Work may not be used in ways that harm ecosystems, communities, or Indigenous knowledge systems.
3. Preserve attribution — include this license and clear attribution in all copies and modifications.
4. Disclose modifications — modified versions must include a summary of changes.
5. Share improvements that enhance safety, ethics, or interpretability — contributions must be offered back to the shared commons via pull request or documentation.

5. Prohibited Uses (Binding)

The Work may not be used for:

- military, policing, or intelligence applications;
- behavioural surveillance, profiling, or prediction;
- cognitive, emotional, or physiological manipulation;
- biometric surveillance or affective tracking for monetisation;
- dual-use technologies capable of entrainment without consent;
- extraction of somatic, physiological, or emotional data without consent that is informed, specific to purpose, explicit, time-bound, and revocable;
- commercial applications without permission.

6. Derivative Works

Derivative works are allowed under the following conditions:

- They must retain this license.
- They must preserve attribution.
- They must clearly mark all changes.
- They must uphold all ethical and prohibited-use clauses.
- They may not be commercially distributed without permission.

7. Combination With MIT-Licensed Code

Portions of this repository contain code derived from Morgoulis (2025) under the MIT License. Specifically, the semantic metrics implementation in `src/metrics.py` (Semantic Curvature, DFA-based Fractal Similarity, and Entropy Shift) is based on the 4D Semantic Coupling framework:

  https://github.com/daryamorgoulis/4d-semantic-coupling

Those algorithmic foundations retain their MIT licensing. All additions, extensions, and surrounding code fall under this Earthian Stewardship License.

8. No Warranty

The Work is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk.

9. License Termination

This license and all permissions granted under it automatically terminate if the user:

- violates any ethical condition,
- engages in prohibited uses,
- attempts to circumvent the commercial licensing requirement,
- or misrepresents compliance.

Upon termination, all copies or derivatives must be destroyed.