Real Simple Licensing (RSL) combines machine‑readable licensing terms in robots.txt with a collective rights organization so AI labs can license web content at scale and publishers can get paid. With backers like Reddit, Yahoo, Medium, and Ziff Davis, it aims to standardize permissions and royalties for AI training.
— If widely adopted, this could shift AI from 'scrape now, litigate later' to a rules‑based licensing market that reshapes AI business models and publisher revenue.
Tyler Cowen
2025.10.02
86% relevant
Item #6 cites FT reporting that music companies may license content to AI firms using attribution and micropayments—exactly the 'collective licensing' model proposed in ASCAP‑style frameworks to regularize AI training on publisher content.
msmash
2025.09.29
78% relevant
OpenAI notifying studios of an opt‑out system for copyrighted material in Sora outputs signals a move toward systematic rights management for AI content, similar to a collective licensing regime; it pressures rightsholders to register preferences and primes a marketplace for permissions.
BeauHD
2025.09.24
90% relevant
Microsoft’s proposed Publisher Content Marketplace is a platform to compensate rights holders for AI usage, directly aligning with the 'ASCAP‑style' collective licensing concept for training and inference access; it contrasts with OpenAI’s one‑off deals and mirrors emerging efforts like RSL.
EditorDavid
2025.09.22
70% relevant
Reddit is negotiating licensed access for Google/OpenAI and wants dynamic pricing that reflects the value of its content—an evolution toward standardized, compensated markets for training data akin to collective licensing.
EditorDavid
2025.09.20
80% relevant
The article shows Sora likely learned from YouTube/Netflix-style content without licenses, while YouTube says such scraping violates its ToS and OpenAI invokes fair use. This evidences the need for standardized, machine-readable licensing and a collective rights body to transact AI training permissions at scale.
Tyler Cowen
2025.09.16
50% relevant
The post’s suggestion that a professional association transfer its papers and reports to AI firms highlights the emerging need for structured rights and licensing of training data; it implicitly intersects with proposals to standardize permissions and royalties for AI training rather than ad‑hoc or free handovers.
BeauHD
2025.09.12
65% relevant
Unwrapped/Vana tried to license pooled Spotify user data to an AI developer (Solo AI, $55,000 for artist‑preference data), echoing the push to standardize licensing for AI inputs; Spotify’s response underscores why a licensing market needs clear rules and platform cooperation.
BeauHD
2025.09.11
100% relevant
Launch of RSL led by RSS co‑creator Eckart Walther, plus the RSL Collective’s publisher roster (e.g., Reddit’s participation alongside its separate Google deal).