Licensing.
How MnemosyneC is licensed.
Free for individuals, researchers and non-profits, for non-commercial use. Any for-profit activity pays a share of its verified net savings, whoever does it: 30% self-serve (companies under USD 1M a year in AI spend), or 25%, 20% or 15% on a 3, 5 or 10-year term. Membership is a discount, never a free pass. Patent-pending, pledged under #2260. Draft for counsel.
The four documents
| Document | What it is | Who it serves | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mnemosyne Cooperative Source License 2.0 | Source-available license for MnemosyneC and the Liana Banyan Platform (one work) | Cooperative-Class Users, decided by the activity: individuals, students, researchers, non-profits, open-source projects, and small businesses for internal use (USD 100,000 or less taken in) | Free for any use that is not Commercial Use. No commercial right is granted by it. |
| Cooperative Endorsement Commercial License | Separate signed agreement, with Exhibit A (Savings Measurement Protocol) and Exhibit B (Public Sovereign Fund) | Every commercial user | A share of verified net savings, never of revenue: Starter (self-serve, under USD 1M a year in AI spend) 30%, month to month; or a 3, 5 or 10-year term at 25%, 20% or 15% on the first USD 5M of savings a year, rate locked for the term; pay while you use |
| Substrate Network Terms | Terms for connecting to the live mesh | Every node | Commercial users connect only under a current Commercial License |
| Library extractions (Apache path) | Apache 2.0, for code Licensor releases that way | Anyone using those specific releases | Attribution; no license to the Substrate Claims |
Plain-language answers, and what has and has not been measured: License FAQ.
We use the Android licensing model.
The Android ecosystem is the closest commercial analogy. Open to read and build on, with the commercial layer licensed. This is how it maps.
Cooperative Source License = the open core: the node and
installer, free for every Cooperative-Class User for any use that is not
Commercial Use.
Commercial License = the commercial layer: any commercial
use, by anyone, including internal use by a business that took in over
USD 100,000 (sales, investment, loans and grants) in the last twelve months,
is licensed by signed agreement for a share of verified net savings: 30% self-serve,
or 25%, 20% or 15% on a 3, 5 or 10-year term.
Apache = library extraction path: selected reference
implementations published under Apache 2.0, with no license to the
Substrate Claims.
Pledge #2260 = patent floor: the patent-pending portfolio
is pledged, irrevocably, to Cooperative-Class Users.
TUP = trademark control: MnemosyneC, Dr. Mnemosynec,
Liana Banyan, Cephas. Non-licensable for forks. Use a different name.
Until build 0.9.31 the open core was licensed under a third-party copyleft license. That license could not require a fee from a commercial user, so it was replaced by the Mnemosyne Cooperative Source License 2.0, which grants no commercial right at all and leaves commercial use to the signed Commercial License. Copies received before 0.9.31 keep the terms they came with.
Read the License FAQ →What counts as Commercial Use.
Commercial Use is any of these, by anyone: a company, a cooperative, a non-profit, a person running a business, or a Liana Banyan member at any tier. What you do decides, not what you are:
(a) offering it, or what it does, as a hosted or networked service;
(b) embedding or bundling it in a product or service that makes money, even a free one;
(c) using it in revenue-generating AI infrastructure;
(d) using it or its output to train or improve a commercial AI model;
(e) any internal use, including evaluation and pilots, by a person or entity that with its affiliates took in over USD 100,000 in the last twelve months, counting sales, investment, loans and grants;
(f) connecting to the Substrate Network as a business.
If your use is Commercial Use, you need the Cooperative Endorsement Commercial License. Publishing your own source code does not replace it.
Commercial licensing.
If your use is Commercial Use (any hosted service, any embedding, any AI-model training, or any internal use by an entity over the revenue threshold), you need the Cooperative Endorsement Commercial License, summarized below.
Track 2, Enterprise or Provider (a 3, 5 or 10-year term): on the first USD 5M of verified net savings each License Year, twenty-five percent (25%) on a 3-year term, twenty percent (20%) on 5 years, or fifteen percent (15%) on 10 years; fifteen percent (15%) above USD 5M; ten percent (10%) above USD 25M; never below ten percent (10%).
Savings are determined under Exhibit A (Savings Measurement Protocol) from provider billing exports. The fee is computed on savings, never on revenue, and never on total infrastructure spend.
- Records and audit: Licensee keeps records sufficient to verify Measured Annual Savings; Licensor may examine them, at most once per License Year, on 30 days' notice, through an independent auditor bound to confidentiality
- Portfolio Schedule: a dated schedule, reconciled against the USPTO record, controls Commercial License scope
- Substrate Network: commercial users connect only under a current Commercial License
- Liana Banyan members who hold a Commercial License: 20% discount on the rate, never taking any rate below 10% and never below any minimum; membership never makes Commercial Use free
- Baseline disputes: if the parties cannot agree on a baseline adjustment, an independent accountant decides, going forward only; the rate never changes that way
Patent peace for the cooperative class.
The portfolio is patent-pending, across 23 USPTO provisional filings. Under Pledge #2260 it is pledged, irrevocably, to Cooperative-Class Users.
Cooperative-Class Users: individuals, students, researchers, non-profits, open-source projects, and small businesses for internal use receive the pledge automatically for any use that is not Commercial Use. Being a cooperative or a Liana Banyan member does not by itself make any use free.
Commercial users: receive a patent license only under a signed Commercial License, for its scope and term.
Every license ends for anyone who brings a patent claim against the Software or a Cooperative-Class User. We compete fair. We do not strike first.
Trademarks belong to Upekrithen LLC.
MnemosyneC, Dr. Mnemosynec, Liana Banyan, and Cephas are non-licensable trademarks held by Upekrithen LLC. You may not use these names to identify or market your fork, derivative work, or competitive product.
Written permission is required for any use. Contact: support@lianabanyan.com (subject: licensing). Plain attribution to the underlying project is fine; trademark use is not.
Use a different name. We compete on the substrate, not the trademark.
Frequently asked questions.
Only if your company, with its affiliates, took in USD 100,000 or less in the last twelve months, counting sales, investment, loans and grants, and the use is not otherwise Commercial Use. Above that, any use, including internal use, needs the Commercial License.
Source License 4.1(e) makes any internal use, of any kind, by an entity whose Gross Revenue for the trailing twelve months with its affiliates (all revenue, plus money received as investment, loan proceeds, or grants) exceeds USD 100,000 a Commercial Use. Hosting, embedding, commercial AI infrastructure, commercial model training and business connection to the Substrate Network are Commercial Use at any size.
A copyleft license must let anyone who shares alike use the code free, including a large company. Ours keeps it free for individuals, non-profits and other non-commercial use, and requires any for-profit activity to pay a share of what it saves.
The Cooperative Source License grants no commercial right, so unlicensed commercial use is a copyright matter today, before any patent issues. The patent license it grants is limited to permitted uses and ends on a patent suit. Selected library extractions are published separately under Apache 2.0. Copies received before build 0.9.31 keep the terms they came with.
Every license you hold from us, under the Source License and any Commercial License, ends immediately.
Source License 1.6 and Pledge #2260 section 3.5: a written claim or proceeding asserting that the Software or the portfolio infringes a patent, or asserting a patent against a Cooperative-Class User, ends that party's licenses automatically. The cooperative does not strike first, but it does not disarm unilaterally either.
Write to Upekrithen LLC directly. Describe your use case and expected volume. The offer window starts from receipt of your letter.