# License — Whitepaper Text

**Monolythium Whitepaper** is licensed under the
**Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)**.

> Note: this license applies to the **whitepaper text in this directory only**.
> The Monolythium source code is licensed separately under the **Business Source License 1.1 (BSL-1.1)** — see the `LICENSE` file in the `mono-core` repository.
> Per locked memory `monolythium-bsl-license.md`, BSL-1.1 carries a 4-year commercial restriction window before converting to a permissive license.

## Summary (non-binding)

You are free to:

- **Share** — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- **Adapt** — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

- **Attribution** — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- **ShareAlike** — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
- **No additional restrictions** — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

## Canonical license text

The full text of CC BY-SA 4.0 is available at:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode

When this whitepaper is published externally, the full canonical license text is appended to this file.

## Attribution string

> Monolythium Whitepaper v5.0 (May 2026), Mono Labs R&D LLC, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

## Why CC BY-SA 4.0 for the text

- **Attribution** ensures forks of the document credit the original work.
- **ShareAlike** prevents derivative whitepapers from being captured under a more restrictive license downstream.
- Compatible with translations — anyone can translate this paper, with credit, under the same terms.
- Per locked decision (Q51 follow-up): CC BY-ND was rejected because it would block legitimate forks of the document, contradicting the project's "forking is the dissent path" principle (see `16_forking_as_exit.md`). CC BY-SA preserves quote/translate/remix rights while keeping the document's openness intact downstream.