AURA Compression License
(Adaptive Universal Response Audit Protocol)
Copyright (c) 2025 Todd Hendricks

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DUAL LICENSE MODEL
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This software is available under a dual-license model:

1. OPEN SOURCE LICENSE (for individuals, non-profits, and educational use)
2. COMMERCIAL LICENSE (for companies with revenue)

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1. OPEN SOURCE LICENSE
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Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

OPEN SOURCE LICENSE TERMS:

This license applies to:
- Individual developers (personal use, non-commercial projects)
- Non-profit organizations
- Educational institutions
- Open source projects (non-commercial)
- Companies with annual revenue ≤$5 million (startups, small businesses)

If you qualify for this license, you may freely use, modify, and distribute
this software under Apache 2.0 terms.

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2. COMMERCIAL LICENSE (Required for Public Deployments)
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COMMERCIAL LICENSE REQUIREMENT:

Companies MAY use AURA Compression for INTERNAL TESTING and EVALUATION without a license,
regardless of company size or revenue.

However, you MUST obtain a commercial license for:

1. PUBLIC DEPLOYMENTS (customer-facing, production use)
2. Any use by companies with annual revenue EXCEEDING $5 MILLION in production

This includes:
- Customer-facing applications (web apps, mobile apps, APIs)
- Production services accessible by external users
- B2B or B2C products using AURA in production
- Growing startups (>$5M annual revenue) with public deployments
- SMBs (small and medium businesses) with customer-facing use
- Enterprises and large corporations with production use
- Any entity with >$5M annual revenue deploying AURA publicly

INTERNAL TESTING IS PERMITTED (No License Required):

Companies of ANY size may use AURA for:
✅ Internal development and testing
✅ Proof-of-concept projects (non-production)
✅ Performance benchmarking
✅ Evaluation and assessment (up to 90 days)
✅ Internal tools not accessible to external users
✅ Staging/test environments (non-customer-facing)

Once you deploy to production or customers can access your service using AURA,
you MUST obtain a commercial license

CONTACT FOR COMMERCIAL LICENSING:

Email: todd@auraprotocol.org
Subject: Commercial License Inquiry - AURA Compression

Please provide:
- Company name and size (employees, annual revenue)
- Use case (how you plan to use AURA)
- Expected deployment scale (users, messages/month)

COMMERCIAL LICENSE PRICING:

Pricing is negotiated based on:
- Company size and revenue
- Deployment scale and bandwidth savings
- Support requirements (SLA, custom templates, etc.)

Typical pricing:
- Growing businesses ($5M-$10M revenue): $25K-$50K/year
- Mid-market ($10M-$100M revenue): $50K-$150K/year
- Enterprise ($100M+ revenue): $150K-$500K/year
- Negotiable based on ROI (bandwidth savings >> license cost)

COMMERCIAL LICENSE INCLUDES:

✅ Full patent indemnification (protection against patent claims)
✅ Priority support with SLA (response time guarantees)
✅ Custom template development (application-specific patterns)
✅ Real-time analytics dashboard (compression performance monitoring)
✅ Multi-tenant template management (for B2B SaaS)
✅ Non-exclusive, perpetual license (pay once, use forever option available)

ENFORCEMENT:

Companies deploying AURA to PRODUCTION/PUBLIC use without a commercial license
(when required) are in violation of this license and may face:
- Legal action for license infringement
- Patent infringement claims (AURA is patent-pending)
- Damages calculated based on unpaid license fees + bandwidth savings

We actively monitor for public/production deployments and enforce licensing requirements.

NOTE: Internal testing and evaluation is ALWAYS permitted without a license,
regardless of company size. We encourage all companies to test AURA internally
before purchasing a license.

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3. PATENT NOTICE
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PATENT PENDING (USPTO Provisional Patent Filed)

This software implements technology covered by pending patent applications:
- Hybrid AI-Optimized Compression Protocol
- Human-Readable Server-Side Enforcement Architecture
- Template-Based Binary Semantic Compression
- Compliance-First Audit Logging

PATENT GRANT (for Open Source License users):

If you use AURA under the Open Source License terms (individuals, non-profits,
educational institutions), you receive a royalty-free patent license for the
patents covering this technology.

PATENT LICENSE (for Commercial License users):

Commercial license includes full patent rights and indemnification.

PATENT TERMINATION:

If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim
or counterclaim) alleging that AURA infringes your patents, your license
(Open Source or Commercial) automatically terminates.

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4. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Q: I'm a solo developer building a side project. Which license do I need?
A: Open Source License (free). Even with paying customers, as long as your
   annual revenue stays under $5M, you can use the free license.

Q: I work at a $50M company. Can I use AURA for internal testing?
A: Yes! Any company can use AURA for internal testing, evaluation, and proof-of-concept
   projects without a license. However, you need a commercial license for production/public deployments.

Q: I work at a company with $3M annual revenue. Can I use AURA for customer-facing products?
A: Yes! Companies with ≤$5M annual revenue can use the Open Source License (free) for
   production deployments

Q: I'm building an open source project (non-commercial). Which license?
A: Open Source License (free), as long as your project is non-commercial.

Q: We're a startup with $8M ARR. What's the license cost?
A: Typically $25K-$50K/year. Contact us for negotiated pricing based on your
   use case and bandwidth savings.

Q: What if we just use AURA without a license?
A: That's license infringement + potential patent infringement. We enforce
   our licensing terms. Don't do this.

Q: Can we try AURA before buying a Commercial License?
A: Yes! All companies can use AURA for internal testing and evaluation without
   a license. Test it in your staging environment, run benchmarks, build proofs-of-concept.
   When you're ready to deploy to production (customer-facing), contact us for licensing.

Q: Is there a self-serve option for small businesses?
A: Not yet, but planned for 2026. For now, contact us for licensing.

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5. DEFINITIONS
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"Company requiring commercial license" means any legal entity (corporation, LLC,
partnership, etc.) that has generated gross revenue >$5 million in the past 12
months from any source (product sales, services, consulting, advertising, etc.).

"Annual revenue" means gross revenue (not net profit) from all sources in the
past 12 months.

"Internal testing" means use within your organization for development, testing,
evaluation, benchmarking, or proof-of-concept that is NOT accessible to external
users or customers. This includes staging/test environments.

"Public deployment" means any use that is accessible to external users, customers,
or the general public, including production services, customer-facing applications,
APIs accessible outside your organization, or B2B/B2C products.

"Use" means incorporating AURA Compression into your product, service, internal
tool, API, or any software.

"Commercial use requiring license" means:
1. Any PUBLIC DEPLOYMENT by a company with annual revenue >$5 million, OR
2. Any PRODUCTION/CUSTOMER-FACING use by companies >$5M revenue

Internal testing does NOT require a commercial license, regardless of company size.

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6. LICENSE COMPATIBILITY
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OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS:

AURA's Apache 2.0 license (for open source users) is compatible with:
- MIT, BSD, ISC licenses ✅
- Apache 2.0 ✅
- LGPL (with some restrictions) ⚠️
- GPL v3 (AURA can be included in GPLv3 projects) ✅

AURA is NOT compatible with:
- Proprietary closed-source commercial software (requires Commercial License)

COMMERCIAL PROJECTS:

If you have a Commercial License, AURA can be used in any software
(proprietary, closed-source, commercial) per your license agreement terms.

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7. CONTACT INFORMATION
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For Licensing Inquiries:
Email: todd@auraprotocol.org
Subject: Commercial License Inquiry

For Technical Support (Open Source users):
GitHub: https://github.com/yourusername/aura-compression/issues
Email: support@auraprotocol.org

For Patent Questions:
Email: todd@auraprotocol.org
Subject: Patent Inquiry

Website: auraprotocol.org (coming soon)

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8. MODIFICATIONS TO THIS LICENSE
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Todd Hendricks reserves the right to update this license for future versions
of AURA Compression. Your use of a specific version is governed by the license
included with that version.

Once you obtain a Commercial License, your rights under that license are
perpetual (or as specified in your license agreement) and cannot be
retroactively changed.

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By using AURA Compression, you agree to these license terms.

If you are a company with annual revenue >$5 million deploying AURA to PRODUCTION
or PUBLIC use without a Commercial License, you MUST stop the public deployment
immediately and contact us for licensing.

Internal testing and evaluation is permitted for all companies without a license.

Last Updated: October 22, 2025
License Version: 1.1 (Updated: Internal testing exemption added)
