Licensing Overview
Plain-language summary of DLP licensing: what's free, what's licensed, and what you own.
Licensing Overview
This page answers the three questions most people have when they first encounter DLP: Can I use this? What does it cost? What do I own?
The DLP protocol is patent pending. The licenses described below include patent grants that give adopters legal clarity.
For the full architectural specification of how license terms are structurally represented and enforced, see §24 Entity & Licensing Structure and §25 License Terms Architecture.
Two Open-Source Licenses
DLP uses two open-source licenses. The protocol specification and the reference implementation (SDK) are licensed separately.
The Specification — Apache 2.0
The protocol specification — the 19 primitives, 10 behavioral invariants, truth type system, and architectural contracts published on this site — is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
What that means:
- You can read, share, and redistribute the specification freely
- You can build your own implementation from the specification
- You can use it for commercial purposes and create derivative works
- The license includes an express patent grant — you receive a license to any patents held by the author that cover the specification
- Requirements: attribution (credit the specification and its author) and notice of changes if you modify it
Attribution format:
Based on the Decision Lineage Protocol specification by Cameisha Smith, GrytLabs Research Institute, Inc. Licensed under Apache 2.0.
The Reference Implementation (SDK) — AGPL-3.0
The reference implementation of the DLP protocol is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).
The SDK implements the full protocol — primitives, invariants, truth type system, world model, and governance machinery — as a single, integrated package.
What that means:
- You can use, modify, and distribute the reference implementation
- If you modify the implementation and make it available over a network (e.g., as a service), you must release your source code under the same license
- This ensures improvements to the reference implementation remain open to the community
Why two licenses? The spec is maximally open (Apache 2.0) so anyone can read and build from it — with an explicit patent grant that gives adopters legal clarity. The reference implementation uses AGPL to ensure that modifications stay open and contribute back to the ecosystem — while still allowing organizations to use it freely for internal operations.
Three Paths Into the Ecosystem
DLP supports three independent entry paths. Each serves a different need and carries different terms.
| Path | What You Get | License | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build from specification | The full protocol spec (this site) | Apache 2.0 | Free |
| Use the reference implementation | The DLP SDK — full protocol implementation | AGPL-3.0 | Free (open source) |
| Deploy with commercial licensing | Production substrate, workbench tooling, and operational support | Commercial license | Licensed |
Path 1: Build from Specification (Free)
Read the spec. Build your own implementation. Your implementation is yours — DLP does not claim ownership of independent implementations built from the open specification. Apache 2.0 requires attribution and includes an express patent grant.
Any conformant implementation shares the same 19 primitives, 10 behavioral invariants, and state transformation model, which means governance data produced by your implementation is structurally compatible with other DLP implementations through the interchange layer (§19).
Path 2: Use the Reference Implementation (Free, Open Source)
The SDK is the reference implementation of the full DLP protocol. It is released under AGPL-3.0 — you can use, study, modify, and distribute it. If you modify the SDK and offer it as a network service, you contribute your modifications back to the community under the same license.
The AGPL ensures that the ecosystem grows through shared improvement. Every modification that reaches users feeds back into the commons.
Path 3: Deploy with Commercial Licensing (Licensed)
The commercial path provides a production-ready substrate and the workbench — the development and governance tooling layer that operates on top of your substrate instance. Commercial licensing covers substrate instantiation, profile scope, and active workbench access.
Commercial licensing is available for organizations that need production operational support, or for organizations whose policies do not permit AGPL dependencies. See §24 for the full licensing model.
What You Own
| You create... | You own it? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| An independent implementation built from the spec | Yes | Yours entirely. Apache 2.0 requires attribution, not ownership transfer. |
| Governance data produced by any implementation | Yes | Your organizational data is yours. Portable through the interchange layer. |
| Modifications to the SDK | Yours, under AGPL | You own your modifications. AGPL requires you share source if you distribute or offer as a service. |
| Customizations and extensions on a commercial substrate | Context-dependent | Governed by your substrate license agreement. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the spec free to read? Yes. The full specification is published on this site under Apache 2.0. No registration, no paywall, no NDA.
Is the reference implementation free to use? Yes. The DLP SDK is released under AGPL-3.0. You can use and modify it freely. If you modify it and offer it as a network service, you must release your source code under AGPL-3.0.
Can I build a commercial product from the spec? Yes. Apache 2.0 permits commercial use. You must provide attribution to the specification and its author. The license includes a patent grant covering the specification.
Do I need a license to evaluate DLP? No. Read the spec, assess the architecture, and determine fit — all before any commercial relationship.
What's the difference between the spec, the SDK, and the commercial substrate? The spec defines what DLP is — the primitives, invariants, and architectural contracts. The SDK is a reference implementation of the full protocol, released under AGPL-3.0. The commercial substrate is a production deployment of that implementation, with the workbench tooling and operational support, under a commercial license.
Can I switch between paths? Yes. The paths are independent and non-coercive. An organization building from the spec can later adopt the SDK or acquire a commercial license without discarding existing work. An organization using the SDK can add commercial licensing independently. See §25 for transition details.
What happens to my data if I cancel my subscription? Your governance data is yours. If you cancel your subscription, the workbench tooling becomes inactive, but your governance data remains fully accessible and exportable through the interchange layer. Nothing is deleted or locked away.
Related Sections
- §24 Entity & Licensing Structure — Four-layer licensing model, entity structure, verification architecture
- §25 License Terms Architecture — How license terms are represented as governance primitives, federation licensing, ecosystem growth model
- §19 Ontology Landscape — Interchange layer for data portability across implementations
Author: Cameisha Smith, GrytLabs Research Institute, Inc.
Decision Lineage Protocol — Architecture Specification
Full protocol specification: primitives, invariants, truth types, governance activation, human capture, integration, profiles, licensing, implementation, and AI orchestration
§1 Problem Architecture
Foundational diagnosis: organizations lack decision capture infrastructure. Three empirical validations. Cybernetic derivation.