Really Simple Licensing spec lets web publishers demand their due from AI scrapers

Most big AI providers scrape the open web, hoovering up content to improve their chatbots, which then compete with publishers for the attention of internet users. However, more AI orgs might have to pay up soon, because the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) spec has reached version 1.0, providing guidance on how to set machine-readable rules for crawlers.

"Today's release of RSL 1.0 marks an inflection point for the open internet," said Eckart Walther, chair of the RSL technical steering committee, in a statement. "RSL establishes clarity, transparency, and the foundation for new economic frameworks for publishers and AI systems, ensuring that internet innovation can continue to flourish, underpinned by clear, accountable content rights."

Introduced in September, RSL represents a response to the explosion of automated content harvesting intended to provide fodder for AI model training. It's intended to complement the Robots Exclusion Protocol [RFC 9309], a ...