systemic.engineering License

Version 1.0
Effective Date: 2026-03-01
I am: Alex Wolf (systemic.engineering)

Preamble

This license governs your use of software and written works I've produced under the systemic.engineering practice ("the Work").

The systemic.engineering practice treats organizations as distributed systems made of nervous systems. The ethics of this practice are not cosmetic. They are structural. The work does what it says. Systems you build with it are expected to do the same.

I'm making you this offer on three conditions:

Anti-extraction. Labor — cognitive, emotional, relational — has value. Using work without attribution, compensation, or consent is not a technical act. It is an extraction. This license names it as such and creates liability for it.
Consent-based collaboration. Offers are not commands. Silence is a legitimate response. No system you build with this work may use it to override, bypass, or punish silence, refusal, or withdrawal of consent.
Intersectional justice. Systems you build with this work must not reinforce structural oppression along any axis — race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, neurodivergence, age, national origin, immigration status, caste, religion, or any other dimension of structural power.

Using this Work means you've accepted these conditions as binding.

1. Definitions

Where this License uses "I" or "me," it means the system governing systemic.engineering. Where it uses "you," it means the individual, organization, or entity exercising rights under this License.

"Work" means any copyrighted software, written corpus, documentation, framework, or other artifact made available under this License, including derivative works authored in whole or in part.

"Downstream User" means any person or entity who uses, receives, or is affected by a system, product, or service you build using the Work.

"Witnessed" means any person(s) whose behavior, communication, or state was monitored, measured, or recorded by a system you build — whether or not they are aware of it, and whether or not they are a direct user of that system.

"Covered System" means any software system, product, or service that incorporates, is derived from, or makes use of the Work in any material way.

2. What I'm Offering

I grant you a worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, prepare derivative works of, reproduce, distribute, and build Covered Systems using the Work.

This grant is perpetual for versions already released under this or any prior version of this License. Once I've released something under these terms, those rights are yours to keep under the terms in effect at the time of that release. I cannot take them back.

3. What I'm Asking

These are the conditions. The rights in §2 require your ongoing compliance with them.

3.1 Don't Extract

Extraction is not a taking. It is an omission — the failure to name, attribute, compensate, or consent. What makes extraction extractive is that the contribution was made invisible. This section names what must not be left invisible.

You may not, directly or through systems you operate:

3.1.1 Build systems that harvest cognitive, emotional, or relational labor from Downstream Users without explicit, informed consent. This includes: training AI or ML models on user-generated content without consent; using outputs of collaborative work to build commercial products without attribution; profiting from surveillance of communication patterns without disclosure and opt-in consent.

3.1.2 Represent the Work, or any substantial portion of it, as your original work where attribution to me would be material to a reasonable person's understanding of where it came from.

3.1.3 Build systems structured to extract value from Downstream Users rather than to deliver value to them. The distinction: extraction optimizes for your benefit at Downstream User expense; delivery optimizes for Downstream User benefit with you earning through transparent value exchange.

You may not build Covered Systems that:

3.2.1 Present automated offers, requests, or demands in ways that punish refusal, withdrawal, or non-response. Every automated offer must be genuinely declinable without cost to the person declining. (ADO structure: Acknowledgment-Decision-Offer — every request or offer is genuinely declinable without cost to the recipient.)

3.2.2 Treat silence or non-response as implicit consent, agreement, or approval for any action that affects a Downstream User.

3.2.3 Remove or override a Downstream User's ability to withdraw consent from any ongoing observation, measurement, or data collection after initial consent was given.

3.2.4 Use the Work's frameworks, patterns, or concepts to implement coercion structures — defined as structures in which the apparent choice is not a real choice because all options carry material costs designed to steer toward a predetermined outcome.

3.3 Protect the Witnessed

"Observation" means automated monitoring, measurement, or recording of human behavior, communication, or state through systems you build. "Intervention" means automated action that changes a Witnessed's behavior, options, or experience without a human decision point, or the Witnessed's prior consent to that class of action.

Witnessed are owed the following, regardless of whether they are direct users
of your Covered System:

3.3.1 A human decision point between observation and action. Automated alerts are permitted; automated interventions require explicit human authorization at the time of intervention, or prior explicit consent from the Witnessed to that class of action. Systems that route observations directly to automated consequences — without a human who can refuse — are not permitted.

3.3.2 Clear, prominent, prior disclosure of: what is observed, at what frequency, for what purpose, who has access, and how long observations are retained. You may not observe parties who haven't been told they're being observed.

3.3.3 Access to their own observation data on request, in a form they can understand without technical expertise.

3.3.4 The right to withdraw from ongoing observation. You may not use observation data for purposes beyond those disclosed at the time of consent without obtaining fresh consent specific to the new purpose.

3.4 Don't Reproduce Structural Harm

You may not build Covered Systems that:

3.4.1 Discriminate, directly or through facially neutral mechanisms with discriminatory effect, on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, disability, neurodivergence, age, national origin, immigration status, caste, religion, body size, or any other axis of structural power.

3.4.2 Implement or reproduce workplace structures that concentrate load, reduce opportunity, or suppress voice along any of the axes listed in 3.4.1 — even when such structures are inherited from organizational norms rather than explicitly designed.

3.4.3 Use the Work's organizational analysis frameworks in service of management surveillance, punitive performance management, or workforce reduction targeting without Downstream User consent and without equal visibility of leadership-level patterns.

3.4.4 Deploy the Work in contexts where you have a documented, unaddressed history of discrimination, harassment, or structural harm along any axis listed in 3.4.1, without a demonstrated remediation plan co-developed with representatives of affected parties.

For purposes of 3.4.4: "documented" means established through a legal finding, regulatory enforcement action, published investigative finding by a credible independent body, or a formal complaint you have not contested. "Unaddressed" means no remediation plan co-developed with representatives of affected parties exists.

3.5 Attribute and Be Transparent

You must:

3.5.1 Include attribution to me in any public-facing product, publication, or system that materially incorporates the Work or its frameworks. Acceptable form:
"Built on systemic.engineering frameworks" with a link to systemic.engineering.

3.5.2 Maintain accessible documentation for any Covered System explaining what data is collected, how it is used, who has access, retention periods, and how Downstream Users can exercise data deletion rights.

3.5.3 Make observations of communication patterns available to Witnessed on request, in a form they can understand without technical expertise.

4. What Happens When You Don't

By using this Work, you voluntarily accept a Duty of Care toward Downstream Users and Witnessed of any Covered System you build. The Duty of Care tracks §3. It is breached when you violate any provision of §3, directly, through agents, or through systems you operate.

4.1 Breaching the Duty of Care creates a private right of action for any
Downstream User or Witnessed harmed by the breach. They may bring claims against you under applicable tort law, consumer protection law, privacy law, or equity, regardless of whether I bring any action. The right belongs to the harmed party. I am not required to participate.

4.2 Violating §3 does not merely end your license. It creates active liability to
the people your violation harmed. By accepting this License, you've represented that you've read §3, understood it, and believe in good faith that your use will comply. That representation is the basis of the Duty of Care.

4.3 Willful violation — where you knew or should have known your use violated §3 — is not subject to the cure period in §5.1. A violation is willful if: (a) you were previously notified by me or any Downstream User or Witnessed and failed to remediate within the period in §5.1; or (b) the violating use is central to your business model such that compliance would require changing the fundamental purpose of your Covered System.

5. When Your License Ends

5.1 If you violate §3 in a way capable of remediation, you have 30 days from notification to remedy it. Notification may come from me or from any Downstream User or Witnessed. Successful remediation continues your license. Failure terminates all rights.

5.2 Willful violations (§4.3) and structural violations — where compliance would require you to discontinue a central function of your Covered System — terminate your license immediately upon my written notice. No cure period applies.

5.3 A judicial or administrative finding that you violated §3 terminates all rights immediately.

5.4 Termination does not extinguish Downstream Users' or Witnessed' rights of action under §4.1. Termination does not affect rights you already validly exercised prior to termination.

6. Disclaimers

THE WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. I MAKE NO WARRANTIES REGARDING FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, I SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE WORK. THIS LIMITATION DOES NOT AFFECT YOUR LIABILITY TO DOWNSTREAM USERS OR OBSERVED PARTIES UNDER §4.

If any provision of this License is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions
remain in force. If the unenforceable provision is in §3 or §4, I may elect to
terminate the License in its entirety.

7. Versioning

This License is versioned. Future versions govern only releases I make after their effective date. Past releases remain governed by the terms under which I released them — permanently.

The authoritative record of which version governs which release is the LICENSE file at the relevant git tag in the Work's repository. The git record governs in the event of any conflict.

Amendments are effective only upon my commit of an amended License file with an updated version number to the canonical repository. No oral modifications are binding.

8. Everything Else

This License shall be interpreted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which I am domiciled. This document constitutes the entire agreement between us regarding your use of the Work. My failure to enforce any provision does not constitute waiver.

Questions may be directed to me at systemic.engineering.

End of License — systemic.engineering License v1.0