RSS co-creator launches RSL protocol for AI data licensing (rslstandard.org)
from Pro@programming.dev to programming@programming.dev on 10 Sep 13:56
https://programming.dev/post/37203138

cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/37203057

#programming

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matcha_addict@lemy.lol on 10 Sep 14:16 next collapse

Is this a robot.txt alternative?

darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Sep 15:35 collapse

Basically. It has an authentication layer. Will watch with interest to see how adoption goes.

“several heavyweight publishers and tech companies – Reddit, Yahoo, People, O’Reilly Media, Medium, and Ziff Davis (ZDNET’s parent company) – have developed a response: the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) standard.”

zdnet.com/…/ais-free-web-scraping-days-may-be-ove…

MxRemy@piefed.social on 10 Sep 19:10 next collapse

Haven't AI crawlers been blatantly ignoring any and all permissions whatsoever? What makes anyone think a license that mentions them will change anything?

SpookyMulder@twun.io on 10 Sep 19:34 next collapse

Exactly this. I doubt the effectiveness of a measure like this. Without enforcement, explicit and public cooperation from AI scrapers, consequences/accountability, and legal backing, it’s just theater.

The equivalent of a strongly worded letter.

IanTwenty@lemmy.world on 11 Sep 07:28 next collapse

From the zdnet article linked in another comment:

tech is one thing; business is another. That’s where the RSL Collective comes in. Modeled on music’s ASCAP and BMI, the nonprofit is essentially a rights-management clearinghouse for publishers and creators. Join for free, pool your rights, and let the Collective negotiate with AI companies to ensure you’re compensated.

I guess this is the body that will be leading the enforcement/bringing the consequences

skrlet13@feddit.cl on 17 Sep 02:35 collapse

By itself is not sufficient, I think It is meant as a startpoint to continue building in the future.

It’s hard to build when you have no monetary support anyway.

Michal@programming.dev on 10 Sep 19:49 collapse

This gives legal backing to any lawsuits against ai companies.

Currently everything on the Internet is assumed to be free. Robots.txt is just a suggestion and not legally enforceable. I assume RSL is supposed to communicate terms of use explicitly, like a EULA.

It’s like open source licenses on github. Sure you can access the source, but here are the rules you have to follow. Yes, a lot of companies still ignore it, notably GNU licensed software has been abused by the likes of Apple.

MxRemy@piefed.social on 10 Sep 20:38 next collapse

Oooh, ok. I hope it helps then!

TehPers@beehaw.org on 11 Sep 03:22 next collapse

Currently everything on the Internet is assumed to be free.

This isn’t true at all. Content on websites is protected by copyright laws as well.

misk@piefed.social on 11 Sep 14:28 collapse

Currently everything on the Internet is assumed to be free. Robots.txt is just a suggestion and not legally enforceable. I assume RSL is supposed to communicate terms of use explicitly, like a EULA.

Robots is just a suggestion and so is this because scaraper never cared about legality of things. All this thing does is make license more easily accessible but consequently, do we want to make it easy for them in the first place? Make scrapers work for it.

SpookyMulder@twun.io on 10 Sep 19:31 next collapse

It’s complementary to robots.txt.

  • It’s weird that it’s XML, in 2025.
  • It’s weird that it doesn’t use the .well-known/ prefix which has trended in the last decade for placement of files like this.
  • It’s weird that it canonically uses the generic “license.xml” file name instead of “license.rsl” or “rsl.xml” or something that more clearly indicates its semantics.

But I do like the idea of having some widely adopted conventional way of expressing, in unambiguous terms, which usages are expressly prohibited, and that AI training is among them.

biotin7@sopuli.xyz on 13 Sep 12:23 collapse

What’s wrong with XML ? You use HTML, right ?

vane@lemmy.world on 11 Sep 01:10 collapse

Well it looks like another paywall / DRM gateway for knowledge that is not opensource. The only open thing they have is .org domain.