3.8 KiB
WellSpr.ing Covenant License — Version 1.1
Issued: April 26, 2026
Steward: Odysseus Melchizedek Shiloh, The Wellkeeper
Canonical source: https://git.wellspr.ing/WellBuilder/wcl-nodes/raw/branch/main/WCL-1.1.md
Served at: https://wellspr.ing/license/wcl-1.1
Node registry: https://git.wellspr.ing/WellBuilder/wcl-nodes
Part I — Permissive Grant (MIT-equivalent)
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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.
Part II — Voluntary Covenant Economics Layer
This layer is voluntary and does not restrict the MIT grant above. Any party that commercially deploys WCL-licensed software and wishes to participate in the covenant economy is invited — not required — to observe the following:
Revenue Allocation (suggested, not mandatory)
| Recipient | Suggested share |
|---|---|
| Platform steward (wellspr.ing) | 12% |
| Named contributors | 48% (divided by contribution weight) |
| Civic mission fund | 15% |
| Infrastructure & operations | 25% |
Contributor recognition: Named contributors listed in CONTRIBUTORS.md at the time of each release are acknowledged as part of the covenant record.
Civic mission: The civic mission fund supports public-benefit uses of the software — community portals, civic data, open infrastructure — with no extraction, surveillance, or rent-seeking.
Part III — Permanence Architecture (WCL-1.1 addition)
WCL-1.1 removes the dissolution clause present in WCL-1.0 and replaces it with a federated node architecture.
Node architecture: This license text is permanently anchored to IPFS and replicated across federated nodes listed in nodes.txt in this repository. Any party may run a WCL node. A node requires only:
- This license text as the seed document
- A publicly accessible URL
- A pull request adding the node URL to nodes.txt in this repository
Permanence statement: Once issued, WCL-1.1 cannot be retracted, modified, or made unavailable by any single party. The license survives the cessation of operations by the steward, the loss of any domain, or the removal of any repository. The network of nodes is the license.
No dissolution clause: Unlike WCL-1.0, this version contains no provision for reversion to MIT upon dissolution of the steward. The covenant economics layer is permanent for all parties who have adopted it and continues through the node network.
IPFS anchoring: Each version release is pinned to IPFS. The content-addressed hash is the permanent identifier.
Node Setup
To run a WCL node:
- Clone or fork this repository
- Host the license text at a stable URL (e.g.,
https://yourdomain.com/WCL-1.1.md) - Submit a pull request adding your URL to
nodes.txt
Node operators are encouraged to mirror the full release bundle at git.wellspr.ing/WellBuilder/notshop-bundle.
Licensed under WCL-1.1. SPDX: LicenseRef-WCL-1.1