Information for authors and users Specification version 1

Code pill

A short tag that tells humans and machines what they may do with your text, code, image, music or speech.

A pill grants everything you can legally grant.
Each letter takes some freedom back.

Read a pill (1ACM]

Credit the author · Not for profit · No mining or AI training

What you may do with the content
Also remember
    1.

    What a code pill is and what it is used for

    Licences are long, all different, and hard to follow for people and for software. A code pill fits the same intent in a few characters, can tag a whole file or a single sentence, and can be checked by a program.

    no pill

    The law decides

    This scheme doesn't apply. In almost every country, a work is protected as soon as it exists: all rights are reserved.

    (1]

    An empty pill gives everything

    Every right the author can legally grant is granted. Moral rights the law keeps with the author, such as the right to integrity in France, stay with them.

    (1AC]

    Each letter takes some freedom back

    Everything is granted except what the letters take back. If you don't respect a letter, the pill grants you nothing and the law alone applies.

    The closing tag mirrors it: [1ACM~photos). It's only needed when the protection stops before the end of the document, or when the document may be pasted inside another one. The optional scope name is only required if you have different terms (described in a companion file named PILL_TERMS.txt) for different sections in the document.

    2.

    What each letter takes back

    Eleven letters. Most add a condition or a limit. Two stop every use.

    Conditions

    You can still use the content provided you do something in return.

    A

    Attribution

    Takes back: using it without crediting the author.

    Use the name from the Author: field. If no name is published anywhere, the author can't claim a missing credit.

    S

    Share alike

    Takes back: distributing a work built on it under other terms.

    Anything made from it carries exactly the same pill.

    T

    Truthful quotation

    Takes back: excerpts that are uncredited, unmarked, or cut to change the meaning.

    If the meaning needs the whole text, quote the whole text.

    F

    Feedback

    Takes back: commercial use without a prior agreement with the author.

    If it earns you money, it has value: agree with the author on how that value comes back to them. Suggested terms go in the Feedback: field.

    Limits

    Some uses are simply not granted.

    C

    No commercial use

    Takes back: selling it, or using it in anything that makes money.

    Wins over F when both are present.

    R

    No modification

    Takes back: changing it.

    Verbatim copies only. Converting a file to another format isn't a modification.

    D

    Distinct works only

    Takes back: reusing it, or recognizable parts of it, in another work.

    A song can be shared on its own, and can inspire a new song nobody could trace back to it. No sample, remix, soundtrack or advert.

    M

    No machine use

    Takes back: data extraction, AI training, text and data mining, and any processing not meant for immediate human consumption.

    Display, screen readers, backups, and compiling or running code stay allowed. In the EU, this is a text and data mining opt-out.

    Stops

    No use is granted. The difference is whether the author claims the content.

    N

    No use, proof only

    Takes back: every use, except proving the content's authenticity, date or authorship.

    The author claims it. Publish an invention to date it, without letting anyone copy or use it.

    P

    Poison

    Takes back: every use, including attributing it to the author.

    The author disowns it: noise, a decoy, generated text. Finding it anywhere else proves the pills were ignored.

    Information

    Takes nothing back.

    W

    Warranty

    Takes back: nothing.

    Without W, no warranty is given. With it, the terms are in the Warranty: field of PILL_TERMS.txt.

    3.

    How to write a pill

    Put it where people and programs will find it, either in a comment, in the file's metadata, in its name, or say it aloud.

    The pill in the header covers the whole file. Nested pills amends the rules: a lowercase letter lifts a restriction, an uppercase letter adds one.

    /* (1ACM~engine]
 * Author: Jane Doe
 * Contact: jane@example.org
 */
#include "vector.h"

float dot(vec3 a, vec3 b) { return a.x*b.x + a.y*b.y + a.z*b.z; }

/* (m]  Machines may read this table.        effective: A C */
static const float sine_table[256] = { /* ... */ };
/* [m) */

/* (R]  Copy these constants, don't change them. effective: A C M R */
#define GRAVITY 9.80665f
/* [R) */

    Nesting

    A nested pill starts from its parent's letters, adds its uppercase letters and removes its lowercase ones. Only the author can add pills inside their own content.

    • The outermost pill carries the version: (1…]. Nested pills can omit it.
    • A closing tag repeats its opening tag exactly and closes the innermost pill.
    • A pill covering a whole file needs no closing tag.
    • A tool that doesn't know the pill's version reads the whole document as N.
    • Letters the pill's version doesn't define are ignored. A closing tag that doesn't match is ignored too, so the open pill keeps applying.
    (1ACM]effective A C M

    The whole file.

    (m]effective A C

    Machines may process this part.

    (R]effective A C R

    Machines may read it. Nobody may change it.

    4.

    Common pills

    The usual wishes are the shortest to write. Open any of them in the reader.

    5.

    Taking it with other pills

    When contents with different pills are mixed, in a document, a product or a training dataset, the result carries all their letters. Some pills can't be mixed at all.

    • Pills stay. Every copy, excerpt and derived work keeps the pill of what it came from.
    • Letters add up. The combined result carries every letter of every pill.
    • The most restrictive wins. P beats everything, then N. C beats F.
    • Some mixes are forbidden. N, P and D content can't go into a mix. As an example, a share-alike pill only accepts pills whose letters it already has.
    • Machines follow the same rules. Output generated from pilled content carries the combined pill or is discarded if the pills can't be combined. Training data has to be sorted into groups of compatible pills.
    Which letters can be mixed
    • Can be mixed
    • Only if the S pill has the letter too
    • No line: can’t be mixed
    Which letters can’t be mixed
    • Can’t be mixed
    • Only if the S pill has the letter too
    • No line: mix freely

    6.

    Pills and the law

    A pill is a grant from the author. It works on top of copyright and authors' rights law (never against it).

    What a pill can't take away

    Rights the law gives to everyone, such as the right of quotation (fair use, fair dealing, droit de citation), don't come from the pill so no letter can remove them.

    What a pill can't give away

    Where moral rights are inalienable, as in France, the author keeps them even under an empty pill. That's why the scheme never says "public domain": the term means different things in different countries.

    When a letter isn't respected

    The pill grants nothing to that user. Their use is then judged by the law alone, under which, by default, all rights are reserved.

    M and European law

    In the EU, rights holders can opt out of text and data mining in a machine-readable way (Directive 2019/790, article 4). M is such an opt-out, and the AI Act requires general-purpose AI providers to respect it.

    7.

    Questions

    Why does a pill grant everything, instead of reserving everything?

    Because the law already reserves everything when there's no pill. A pill is only useful to give rights away, so the most common wishes stay short: (1A] for "credit me", (1AS] for "credit me and keep it open".

    Do I need a closing pill?

    Not for a whole document. You need one when the protection changes inside the document, or when the document may be included in another one, like a header file or a pasted paragraph.

    How do I lift a restriction for a small part of my work?

    Nest a pill with the lowercase letter, like (m] inside a (1ACM] file. It saves you from closing the pill and opening a new one.

    What's the difference between N and P?

    With N, the author claims the work but keeps it private: it can only serve to prove its existence, date or authorship. With P, the author disowns the content: it's noise to be ignored, and if it shows up anywhere else, that proves someone ignored the pill.

    Can a pill forbid me to quote a text?

    No. Your right to quote comes from the law, not from the pill. T only spells out what a faithful quotation is: credit the author and source, mark it as a quote, don't twist the meaning.

    What if I find a letter I don't know?

    Ignore it. The pill starts with its version number, so a letter added by a later version is read with that version's rules. A letter not defined in a version means nothing.

    What if I find a version I don't know?

    Read the whole document as N until your tool knows that version. An outdated tool never gives away a freedom that a newer letter takes back.

    Why does a pill start with a number?

    A pill has to survive in a file name. A colon is forbidden in Windows file names, and | or ! are special characters in POSIX shells. A leading digit works everywhere and keeps the pill short: (1ACM], or (1] for the empty pill.

    Can I use a pill and another licence together?

    Yes. Each licence is a separate grant and the scheme doesn't merge them. Just avoid saying contradictory things.

    Current status : Draft, request for comments


    If you have any remark or a better idea for improvement, feel free to submit your thought below


    Feedback