Initiative profile

Really Simple Licensing (RSL)

Live

A machine-readable licensing schema for clearly signaling reuse permissions and conditions (including payment or use restriction).

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Website
rslstandard.org
Latest update
Dec 09, 2025 Technical standards released
Primary approach
Formal license
Also uses
Preference signal

What it is

RSL proposes a structured way to express licensing terms in machine-readable form so implementers can reliably interpret reuse permissions across the web. It is one of the clearest examples in the catalog of a standards effort that is trying to combine rights expression, implementation guidance, and ecosystem backing from publishers and infrastructure providers.

Evidence trail

Adoption signals

Examples

Site-wide RSL file Source

The RSL 1.0 spec includes a compact XML example for prohibiting AI use across a site.

<rsl xmlns="https://rslstandard.org/rsl">
  <content url="/">
    <license>
      <prohibits type="usage">ai-all</prohibits>
    </license>
  </content>
</rsl>
Schema.org license pointer Source

RSL's Schema.org guide shows how structured metadata on a page can point to an RSL license file.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Book",
  "license": "https://gutenberg.org/ebooks-rsl-license.xml"
}