Really Simple Licensing (RSL) is an open, machine-readable licensing system designed to help content publishers define how their data can be used, particularly by artificial intelligence systems. Announced in September 2025 by a coalition of technologists and publishers, the protocol was developed in direct response to growing concerns about unauthorized AI training and widespread copyright infringement.
The system was co-founded by Eckart Walther, best known as one of the co-creators of RSS. His vision for RSL is to offer the same level of distribution clarity that RSS brought to content syndication, but this time focused on licensing at web scale. In Walther’s words:
“We need to have machine-readable licensing agreements for the internet. That’s really what RSL solves.”
Core Features of RSL
Machine-Readable Licensing
At its core, RSL is built on XML. Publishers create a simple license file that can be embedded in common web contexts:
- robots.txt
- HTML <link> or <script> tags
- HTTP headers
- RSS or Atom feeds
These licenses define whether AI systems can crawl, use, or train on content, and under what conditions.
Usage Controls
RSL enables fine-grained control over how content may be used. Some common permission tags include:
- ai-train: For training language models
- ai-include: For serving AI-generated responses using the content
- search: For indexing in search engines
These can be selectively permitted, prohibited, or made conditional on payment or attribution.
Payment Models
RSL supports multiple monetization strategies:
- Free use
- Attribution-only
- Royalty-based (pay-per-use)
- Subscription
- Per-inference (where AI pays each time a model draws on the content)
These terms are defined in the license’s <payment> section and can be enforced through token-based access.
License Servers and OLP
To enable enforceable terms, RSL offers an optional integration with the Open Licensing Protocol (OLP). This lets AI companies request a license token (via OAuth 2.0) and receive:
- Access credentials
- Decryption keys for protected content
- Permission audit logs
For enterprises distributing premium content or gated data, OLP turns RSL into a lightweight, open alternative to complex DRM systems.
The Legal Infrastructure: The RSL Collective
To support enforcement and monetization, the RSL team also created the RSL Collective, a rights management body modelled after ASCAP (for music) and MPLC (for film).
Its role is to:
- Negotiate blanket licensing deals with AI companies
- Collect and distribute royalties
- Provide publishers with simple, boilerplate licenses
- Offer dispute support for enforcement
This structure is particularly valuable for smaller publishers, who may lack the legal or technical capacity to negotiate directly with major AI firms.
Several high-profile web platforms, including Reddit, Yahoo, Medium, Quora, People Inc., The Daily Beast, WebMD, Ziff Davis, and others, have already joined. Others like Fastly and Adweek support the standard without formally joining the collective.
Importantly, RSL allows dual participation: a company like Reddit can negotiate bespoke terms with Google, while still participating in the Collective to license residual traffic elsewhere.
How RSL Works in Practice
Step-by-Step Integration
- Create an RSL license file in XML, declaring permitted uses, attribution, and payment rules.
- Host it publicly, typically at /license.xml on the website domain.
- Reference it in robots.txt using:
License: https://example.com/license.xml - Optionally, embed it in:
- <link rel=”license”> in the <head> of web pages
- RSS/Atom feeds using <rsl:content> elements
- HTTP headers via Link: <url>; rel=”license”
From there, compliant bots and AI agents can parse and act on the terms.
The Collective Option
For companies that want to monetize but avoid complexity, the RSL Collective offers boilerplate licenses such as:
- AI Attribution License – free with mandatory attribution
- AI Royalty License – paid usage for training or inclusion
Pointing to one of these templates in robots.txt is all that’s needed to join. The Collective handles the rest, such as licensing, negotiation, royalty collection, and enforcement.
Who Benefits from RSL?
RSL is built for any entity creating content that may be scraped or reused by AI models:
- Newsrooms and media publishers
- Community platforms and Q&A sites
- Academic dataset providers
- Online educators and e-book authors
- Technical documentation creators
- Open-source projects with licensing requirements
RSL is especially important for those who have valuable domain-specific data that general AI models find hard to replicate.
For large brands, RSL enables custom licensing models. For smaller ones, it offers a turnkey collective framework.
Why AI Needs RSL
The legal environment for AI is shifting. Dozens of copyright lawsuits are currently pending, many of which focus on:
- Text scraped from websites without permission
- Images used without consent in model training
- Failure to attribute sources
RSL creates a clear, enforceable standard to help the industry avoid billion-dollar litigation.
As one RSL co-founder, Doug Leeds (former CEO of IAC Publishing), noted:
“Some of the licensing agreements [AI companies] have already done required them to be able to report on it. It doesn’t have to be perfect — it just has to be good enough to get people paid.”
RSL provides the structure for that “good enough” to be possible.
What RSL Doesn’t Solve (Yet)
- Rogue AI crawlers may still ignore RSL: Like robots.txt, compliance is voluntary. Enforcement depends on industry norms, legal action, or pairing with technical firewalls.
- Tracking AI usage remains a challenge: Especially for per-inference licensing, it’s hard to confirm how or when specific content was used in training.
- Widespread adoption will take time: For RSL to work at scale, both content publishers and AI developers must embrace the standard.
How RSL Compares
vs Robots.txt
RSL builds on robots.txt, but adds meaning. Instead of just “disallow,” it says, “here’s how to use this responsibly — and how to pay for it.”
vs Cloudflare Pay-Per-Crawl
While Cloudflare’s Pay-Per-Crawl blocks bots without payment, it only works for Cloudflare-hosted sites. RSL is open and decentralized, with no dependency on a specific vendor.
vs Creative Commons
RSL doesn’t replace CC — it complements it. In fact, RSL lets publishers embed CC licenses in their XML and add AI-specific usage layers on top.
Using RSL with WordPress
For publishers and enterprises managing digital content through WordPress, integrating Really Simple Licensing (RSL) is already possible. James Le Page, a builder and team representative on the WordPress AI team, developed the first dedicated plugin for publishers using the platform: RSL Licensing for WordPress. Currently in early development, the plugin offers a practical entry point for enabling machine-readable AI licensing protocols on WordPress-powered sites.
What the Plugin Supports
- License creation and customization from within the WordPress admin dashboard
- Global licensing controls that apply a selected license site-wide
- Token-based access via OAuth 2.0 for licensing clients (e.g. AI crawlers or data aggregators)
- Automatic injection of RSL metadata into HTML headers and pages
- Support for HTTP headers and <script type=”application/rsl+xml”> tags to make license discovery seamless for bots and AI systems
While still in alpha, it provides a basic implementation of the Open Licensing Protocol (OLP), laying the groundwork for future enhancements.
Integration Considerations
Deploying RSL on a WordPress site typically involves:
- Installing the plugin or custom implementation
- Creating one or more licenses, including defining payment terms and usage permissions
- Embedding the license reference into robots.txt and front-end metadata
- Assigning licenses globally or per post type, depending on publishing needs
For advanced control, developers can configure OAuth clients and license tokens, allowing AI clients to request and verify access based on declared RSL rules formally.
Opportunities for Deeper Integration
To meet the needs of larger publishers or multisite networks, WordPress developers can extend the plugin with:
- Per-page or per-category licensing
- REST API endpoints for token verification
- Integration with licensing dashboards
- Custom templates for standard licenses (e.g., attribution-only, subscription-based)
- Support for premium content decryption via token authorization
Combined with WordPress’s flexibility, RSL provides a low-friction way to modernize AI licensing without rebuilding content infrastructure.
RSL: The Next Layer of the Open Web
Really Simple Licensing is a response to a changing internet where content has value, and AI systems must learn to respect it.
As more publishers adopt RSL and major AI labs face mounting legal and reputational pressure, this protocol could become a foundational layer of the AI economy. Much like RSS once enabled a new era of content syndication, RSL could enable a new era of content licensing.
Trew Knowledge helps enterprises implement cutting-edge, scalable AI integrations. Let’s discuss how to future-proof your content infrastructure and build responsibly for the AI-powered web.
