License Guardian Network Specification

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License Guardian Network

Connecting usage, provenance, and compliance.

Purpose

License Guardian Network is a modular AI-powered licensing, provenance, attribution, and compliance system designed to identify the use, reuse, modification, and semantic likeness of licensed specifications across websites, networks, and Git repositories.

The system provides a continuous framework for connecting canonical specifications with discovered usage, semantic relationships, attribution requirements, licensing status, provenance records, compliance findings, evidence, and remediation workflows.

The system is designed to support specification authors, open source projects, organizations, developers, licensing administrators, and rights holders in maintaining transparent and verifiable licensing relationships.

Core Principles

Specification-first design
Modular architecture
Semantic provenance
Attribution verification
License-aware analysis
Evidence-based compliance
Human-controlled enforcement
Transparent detection
Privacy-conscious identity management
User and specification scoping
Reproducible analysis
Auditable workflows
Extensible licensing support
AGPL-3.0+ compatibility
Optional SBL integration

Core Modules

Specification Registry Module

The Specification Registry maintains the canonical record for specifications monitored by License Guardian Network.

Features:

Register specifications
Generate unique specification identifiers
Store canonical specification content
Track specification versions
Track specification authors
Store ownership metadata
Store licensing metadata
Store attribution requirements
Store required attribution text
Store required attribution URLs
Store specification categories
Track specification dependencies
Track specification relationships
Track specification lineage
Maintain specification history
Maintain specification fingerprints
Verify specification integrity
Search registered specifications
Filter specifications by licensing and provenance attributes

Semantic Discovery Module

The Semantic Discovery Module identifies potentially related specifications and content using semantic analysis rather than relying exclusively on exact textual matches.

Features:

Semantic search
Embedding-based similarity analysis
Semantic likeness detection
Conceptual similarity detection
Paraphrase detection
Rewritten specification detection
Partial reuse detection
Structural similarity detection
Cross-document comparison
Cross-repository comparison
Specification fragment matching
Related specification discovery
Similarity scoring
Configurable similarity thresholds
Context-aware comparison
Confidence scoring
False-positive review support

The module must distinguish semantic similarity from definitive legal conclusions. Detection results represent evidence for review rather than an automatic determination of infringement or liability.

Web Discovery and Crawling Module

The Web Discovery and Crawling Module identifies publicly accessible content that may contain registered specifications or semantically similar material.

Features:

Public website discovery
Public webpage crawling
User-submitted URL analysis
Sitemap discovery
Repository discovery
Documentation discovery
Markdown extraction
HTML extraction
Structured content extraction
Metadata extraction
Duplicate detection
Crawl history
Timestamp recording
Incremental crawling
Scheduled crawling
Crawl scope controls
Domain allowlists
Domain blocklists
Robots.txt awareness
Source validation

The module must respect applicable access restrictions, crawling policies, privacy requirements, and authorization boundaries.

Repository Analysis Module

The Repository Analysis Module analyzes Git repositories and associated documentation for specification usage, licensing information, attribution, and provenance relationships.

Features:

Repository registration
Repository discovery
Repository scanning
README analysis
Specification document analysis
License file analysis
Notice file analysis
Contributing file analysis
Documentation analysis
Commit analysis
Branch analysis
Tag analysis
Release analysis
Pull request analysis
Merge request analysis
License change detection
Attribution change detection
Specification change detection
Repository compliance analysis
Specification-to-repository mapping
Specification-to-code relationship mapping

Attribution Verification Module

The Attribution Verification Module determines whether required attribution associated with a registered specification is present and identifiable in discovered content.

Features:

Author name detection
Rights holder detection
Required URL detection
License reference detection
SBL reference detection
Attribution placement analysis
Attribution completeness analysis
Attribution consistency analysis
Missing attribution detection
Modified attribution detection
Obscured attribution detection
Attribution history
Attribution remediation recommendations
Attribution compliance status

The module must clearly distinguish between detected absence of an expected attribution element and a legal conclusion concerning infringement.

Provenance Module

The Provenance Module records relationships between specifications, sources, repositories, versions, derivatives, and discovered uses.

Features:

Source provenance
Specification lineage
Parent specification relationships
Child specification relationships
Derivative relationship mapping
Modification history
Source-to-derivative mapping
Repository-to-specification mapping
URL-to-specification mapping
Attribution-to-source mapping
Provenance timestamps
Provenance confidence scores
Provenance graphs
Cryptographic provenance records
Provenance exports
Provenance verification

Compliance Analysis Module

The Compliance Analysis Module combines semantic discovery, attribution verification, licensing information, and provenance data into structured compliance findings.

Features:

Automated compliance analysis
License status analysis
Attribution status analysis
SBL status analysis
Potential compliance issue detection
Missing attribution alerts
License mismatch detection
Unverified licensing detection
Compliance severity classification
Compliance confidence scoring
Configurable compliance policies
Human review checkpoints
Compliance case creation
Remediation tracking
Compliance history
Compliance reporting

The system must identify findings as potential, detected, verified, or resolved according to configured evidence and review criteria.

Evidence Builder Module

The Evidence Builder creates structured records supporting compliance review and licensing enforcement workflows.

Features:

Evidence package generation
Source URL recording
Source metadata recording
Timestamp recording
Content snapshot recording
Specification reference recording
Similarity score recording
Attribution finding recording
License finding recording
Provenance relationship recording
Detection methodology recording
Evidence integrity hashing
Evidence chain generation
Machine-readable evidence exports
Human-readable evidence reports
Evidence versioning

Evidence records should preserve sufficient context to allow a reviewer to independently evaluate the underlying finding.

Compliance Case Module

The Compliance Case Module manages individual licensing and attribution investigations.

Features:

Unique case identifiers
Case creation
Case status tracking
Specification association
Repository association
Source association
Organization association
Evidence attachment
Similarity findings
Attribution findings
License findings
Communication history
Notice history
Response tracking
Remediation tracking
Escalation workflows
Internal notes
Review history
Resolution records
Case archival
Case export

Legal Notice Formulator Module

The Legal Notice Formulator generates structured notices using evidence and licensing information collected by the system.

Features:

Attribution request generation
License compliance notice generation
Cure notice generation
SBL licensing inquiry generation
Commercial licensing request generation
Takedown request drafting
DMCA-oriented notice drafting where applicable
Jurisdiction-specific template support
Rights holder information
Recipient information
Specification identification
Source identification
Evidence insertion
Similarity findings insertion
Attribution findings insertion
License findings insertion
Response deadline configuration
Cure-period configuration
Notice versioning
Notice history
Human approval workflow

Generated notices must clearly identify the factual basis for the notice and must not represent an automated similarity finding as an independently established legal conclusion.

AI Analysis Module

The AI Analysis Module assists with specification analysis, semantic comparison, provenance reasoning, and compliance review.

Features:

Specification classification
Specification extraction
Semantic analysis
Similarity explanation
Attribution reasoning
Provenance reasoning
Compliance reasoning
Evidence summarization
Potential derivative identification
Confidence scoring
Explainable findings
Human-in-the-loop review
Configurable AI models
Local model support
Self-hosted analysis support
AI analysis audit trails

AI-generated findings must remain reviewable and must preserve the underlying evidence used to produce the finding.

Grounding Framework Module

The Grounding Framework Module provides a canonical reference layer for repositories and AI-assisted development systems.

Features:

Canonical specification grounding
Repository grounding
License grounding
Attribution grounding
Provenance grounding
Source verification
Specification context resolution
Version-aware grounding
Semantic reference resolution
Grounding confidence scores
Grounding audit trails
AI-generated content grounding
Specification dependency grounding
Licensing-aware context retrieval

Git repositories using License Guardian Network should be able to establish their specifications, licensing requirements, provenance relationships, and attribution requirements as part of their development grounding framework.

Identity and Specification Cookie Module

The Identity and Specification Cookie Module provides scoped identifiers for licensed specification interactions.

Features:

Unique user identifiers
Unique specification identifiers
User-specific specification identifiers
First-party cookie generation
Specification-scoped cookies
Signed identifiers
Identifier rotation
Identifier expiration
Consent-state management
Domain scoping
Specification scoping
Token validation
Token revocation
Privacy controls
Licensing relationship identifiers

Identifiers must be scoped to legitimate application purposes and must not be used to create unauthorized cross-site behavioral tracking or covert identity correlation.

SBL Module

Specification Branding License (SBL):

Licensing & Attribution (AGPL-3.0+)

Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
Copyleft enforced for network deployments
Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/

Optional:

Specification Branding License (SBL)
- attribution-free commercial deployment
- pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope

The SBL Module provides licensing and verification capabilities for specifications offered under the Specification Branding License.

Features:

SBL specification registration
SBL license status tracking
Commercial SBL license records
Attribution-required status
Attribution-free authorization status
Licensed deployment scope
Licensed usage scope
License agreement metadata
License expiration tracking
SBL purchase verification
SBL authorization records
Specification-specific licensing
User-specific licensing records
Organization-specific licensing records
Specification-specific authorization identifiers
SBL provenance records
SBL compliance reporting
SBL license verification

API Module

The API Module provides programmatic access to License Guardian Network capabilities.

Features:

Specification API
Registry API
Semantic search API
Compliance API
Attribution API
Provenance API
Evidence API
SBL verification API
Notice generation API
Case management API
Repository analysis API
Webhook support
Event subscriptions
Authentication
Authorization
API key management
Rate limiting
API audit logging

Integration Module

The Integration Module connects License Guardian Network with external development, repository, licensing, and notification systems.

Features:

Git repository integration
Continuous compliance analysis
Continuous attribution verification
Pull request analysis
Merge request analysis
Release compliance checks
CI compliance checks
Webhook integrations
Repository synchronization
Notification integrations
External evidence export
External compliance reporting

Monitoring and Alert Module

The Monitoring and Alert Module provides notifications when significant licensing, attribution, provenance, or compliance events occur.

Features:

New semantic match alerts
Missing attribution alerts
License change alerts
Specification change alerts
SBL status alerts
Repository compliance alerts
Provenance relationship alerts
Crawl failure alerts
Analysis failure alerts
Case status alerts
Notice deadline alerts
License expiration alerts
Configurable notification rules

Reporting and Analytics Module

The Reporting and Analytics Module provides structured analysis of specification usage and licensing compliance.

Features:

Repository compliance reports
Specification usage reports
Attribution reports
SBL licensing reports
Semantic similarity reports
Provenance reports
Compliance trend analysis
Detection statistics
Case statistics
Licensing statistics
Crawl statistics
Organization-level reporting
Specification-level reporting
Exportable reports
Historical reporting

Security and Integrity Module

The Security and Integrity Module protects specifications, evidence, provenance records, licensing records, and system operations.

Features:

Cryptographic identifiers
Signed provenance records
Evidence integrity verification
Tamper-evident audit records
Role-based access control
Permission management
Authentication
Authorization
Secure token handling
Encryption support
Audit logging
Data retention controls
Identifier revocation
Administrative security controls

Privacy Module

The Privacy Module establishes controls for responsible handling of identifiers, source information, and system data.

Features:

Data minimization
Consent management
First-party identity controls
Identifier expiration
Identifier deletion
User data export
User data removal
Domain scoping
Specification scoping
Retention controls
Crawl-policy enforcement
Privacy-aware audit logging
Access control
Data processing transparency

Optional Plugin Modules

License Guardian Network supports optional modules that can be independently enabled, disabled, replaced, or extended.

Repository Connector Plugins

Optional connectors may provide specialized support for:

GitLab
GitHub
Codeberg
Other Git hosting platforms
Self-hosted Git services
Repository mirrors
Repository indexing services

Crawler Plugins

Optional crawler plugins may provide:

Specialized website crawling
Documentation crawling
Sitemap crawling
Repository crawling
Archive analysis
Structured data extraction
Domain-specific discovery
Scheduled discovery

Embedding Plugins

Optional embedding plugins may provide:

Local embedding models
Remote embedding services
Domain-specific embedding models
Multi-model comparison
Custom similarity functions
Model-specific indexing

AI Provider Plugins

Optional AI provider plugins may provide:

Local language models
Remote language models
Specialized legal analysis models
Specification analysis models
Classification models
Summarization models
Custom AI agents

Vector Storage Plugins

Optional vector storage plugins may provide:

Local vector indexing
Distributed vector storage
Specification indexes
Repository indexes
Provenance indexes
Multi-index search
Semantic retrieval

License Plugins

Optional license plugins may provide:

Additional open source licenses
Custom licensing models
Organization-specific licensing policies
Commercial license verification
License compatibility analysis
License transition tracking

Legal Template Plugins

Optional legal plugins may provide:

Attribution notices
Compliance notices
Cure notices
Takedown requests
DMCA-oriented templates
Jurisdiction-specific templates
Commercial licensing notices
Custom rights-holder templates

Notification Plugins

Optional notification plugins may provide:

Email notifications
Webhook notifications
Repository notifications
Dashboard alerts
Case alerts
Administrative notifications

Export Plugins

Optional export plugins may provide:

JSON reports
CSV reports
Markdown reports
HTML reports
PDF evidence packages
Provenance exports
Compliance exports
API-compatible records

Identity Plugins

Optional identity plugins may provide:

External authentication
Organization identity
Enterprise identity
License-holder identity
Specification-owner identity
Scoped authorization

Modular Processing Pipeline

The system should support a modular processing pipeline in which individual modules can operate independently while exchanging structured records.

A standard workflow is:

Register a canonical specification.
Record its licensing and attribution requirements.
Generate its semantic fingerprint.
Establish its provenance record.
Discover potentially related content.
Extract and normalize discovered material.
Compare discovered material against registered specifications.
Calculate semantic similarity.
Verify attribution and licensing information.
Associate findings with provenance records.
Generate structured evidence.
Create a compliance case when appropriate.
Present findings for human review.
Generate an appropriate notice when authorized.
Track remediation or licensing resolution.
Update the provenance and compliance history.

Modules should be replaceable without requiring redesign of unrelated modules.

Repository Grounding Framework

License Guardian Network is intended to function as a grounding framework for Git repositories that use specifications as part of their development process.

A participating repository should be able to establish:

The specifications it uses
The versions of those specifications
The source of those specifications
The licensing terms governing those specifications
Required attribution
SBL authorization status where applicable
Specification dependencies
Provenance relationships
Semantic relationships
Repository-level compliance status

The grounding framework should allow AI-assisted development systems to reference canonical specifications and licensing information before generating, modifying, or incorporating specification-derived material.

Compliance Status Model

The system should support distinct compliance states, including:

Unknown
Unanalyzed
Potential Match
Similarity Detected
Attribution Present
Attribution Missing
License Verified
License Unverified
SBL Verified
SBL Unverified
Under Review
Notice Prepared
Notice Sent
Remediation Pending
Remediated
Licensed
Resolved
Disputed
False Positive

Compliance states must remain traceable to their supporting evidence.

Human Review

Human review must remain available throughout significant compliance workflows.

Reviewers should be able to:

Inspect matched content
Review similarity scores
Compare source and discovered material
Inspect provenance relationships
Verify attribution findings
Verify licensing information
Review evidence
Modify case status
Approve notices
Reject findings
Mark false positives
Record remediation
Resolve disputes

Automated analysis should assist enforcement workflows rather than independently making final legal determinations.

Evidence Requirements

Compliance findings should preserve:

Source
Timestamp
Specification identifier
Specification version
Similarity score
Matching content
Attribution status
License status
SBL status
Provenance information
Analysis methodology
Reviewer decisions
Case history

Evidence should remain associated with the finding throughout its lifecycle.

Extensibility Requirements

The system should allow developers to introduce new modules without modifying the underlying specification registry.

New modules may extend:

Discovery
Semantic analysis
Licensing
Attribution
Provenance
Evidence
Legal workflows
Repository integrations
AI analysis
Identity
Notifications
Reporting
Storage
Security

Each extension should expose clearly defined interfaces and maintain compatibility with existing records and workflows.

Deployment Principles

License Guardian Network should support:

Local operation
Self-hosted operation
Network deployment
Distributed operation
Modular deployment
Offline analysis where practical
Scalable discovery
Scalable semantic indexing
Portable configuration
Backup and restoration
Independent module scaling

Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
Copyleft enforced for network deployments
Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/

Optional

Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/license-guardian-network/

License & Notice Requirements

License Guardian Network is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

By contributing to any Open Arsenal project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to: Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
Open Arsenal License Guardian Network specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.

Notice – License Guardian Network

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – June 29, 2026
Created the repository for License Guardian Network. Designed the foundational architecture for a semantic license compliance and provenance tracking system that connects usage, attribution, and specification-level compliance across distributed networks.
[Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – License Guardian Network

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points:

You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.