Documentation

DRAFT — Bloqr Core License (Source-Available, Non-Commercial)

Status: DRAFT — NOT YET ADOPTED. This is a candidate replacement for the root LICENSE file, written for review by the repo owner and, before it ships, by counsel. It is not in effect. The repository's actual license today remains whatever LICENSE currently says, notwithstanding the inconsistent GPL-3.0 references elsewhere in the tree (tracked separately — see the licensing-strategy doc and its tracking issue).

This draft is modeled on bloqr-compiler's existing source-available license so the FOSS and commercial sides of the org read as one consistent family, adapted for the fact that bloqr-core ships as source code people run themselves, not a hosted/metered service — so the SaaS-API-billing and proxy-metering license paths that make sense for bloqr-compiler don't apply here and have been dropped in favor of a single "contact Bloqr for commercial terms" path.

Open questions for the repo owner / counsel, called out inline below with [OPEN QUESTION] markers, plus at the end.

Bloqr Core License

Version 1.0 (DRAFT)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This software ("Software") is made available under the following terms:

1. NON-COMMERCIAL USE (FREE)

You may use, copy, modify, and distribute the Software freely for non-commercial purposes, including but not limited to:

Personal projects
Educational purposes
Open-source projects (that do not generate revenue)
Internal organizational use by non-profit organizations
Research and development
Operating your own ad-blocking filter lists, hostlists, or similar artifacts and distributing them at no charge

This license grants you the right to view, study, and understand the source code. All modifications must be made in a private, non-distributed manner or contributed back to the official Bloqr repository via pull request.

Using the Software to produce an artifact (a compiled filter list, a configuration, generated output of any kind) that you give away for free is non-commercial use, even if you are a business or professional entity, provided the artifact itself is not sold, is not paywalled, and is not used to directly generate revenue (e.g., bundled into a paid product or service, gated behind a subscription, or monetized via a fee for access).

2. COMMERCIAL USE (RESTRICTED)

If you or your organization uses the Software, or any artifact produced by the Software, to generate revenue or for any commercial purpose, you must obtain a commercial license from Bloqr Systems.

"Commercial use" includes, but is not limited to:

Using the Software as part of a product or service sold, licensed, or offered to third parties for a fee
Selling, sublicensing, or paywalling any artifact produced by the Software (a compiled filter list, hostlist, or similar output)
Using the Software to generate revenue through any monetization model (subscriptions, advertising revenue directly tied to the artifact, paid support built around the artifact, etc.)
Using the Software in a business context to create competitive advantage where that advantage is monetized
Offering services that derive revenue from the Software or its output

Bloqr Systems, Inc. and its employees and contractors acting on its behalf retain unlimited rights to use the Software for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without restriction.

Third parties may obtain a commercial license from Bloqr Systems to use the Software (or artifacts it produces) commercially. See bloqr-compiler's Commercial License Agreement template for the shape such an agreement takes for Bloqr's commercial products — the equivalent agreement for bloqr-core would follow the same pattern, minus the SaaS-API/proxy-metering terms that are specific to bloqr-compiler being a hosted service.

To inquire about commercial licensing, contact: sales@bloqr.dev

[OPEN QUESTION] Should "artifact produced by the Software" commercial use be scoped identically to how bloqr-compiler's license treats it, or does bloqr-core's much lower-friction, self-hosted, no-API-metering nature warrant a narrower or differently-worded definition? The two products have different practical enforcement postures — bloqr-compiler can meter usage through its own infrastructure; bloqr-core cannot observe downstream use at all once someone has the source. Worth deciding whether that changes what the license should promise to actually be able to enforce, versus what it states as the honor-system expectation.

3. RESTRICTIONS

Regardless of use case, you may NOT:

Modify, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works for redistribution outside your organization without permission
Republish the Software under a different package name, organization, or branding
Create a competitive product using the Software as a base
Remove, obscure, or alter this license or any copyright notices
Use the Software to provide a functionally similar competing service

4. NO MODIFICATIONS FOR DISTRIBUTION

All modifications must remain private to your organization unless contributed back to the official Bloqr repository via pull request. Public distribution of modified versions outside that path is forbidden.

5. REDISTRIBUTION RIGHTS

You may redistribute the unmodified Software with its original source code, provided you include this license and all copyright notices.
For modified versions: redistributing modified versions outside your organization requires explicit written permission from Bloqr Systems.

6. OPEN SOURCE COMPATIBILITY

This Software uses dependencies under various open-source licenses (MIT, Apache 2.0, etc. — see the dependency license compatibility report tracked separately). Using the Software under non-commercial terms does not require you to open-source your own applications. When using the Software commercially under a Bloqr commercial license, you remain free to keep your own applications proprietary.

[OPEN QUESTION] This clause is only true once the dependency audit (see the tracking issue) confirms no copyleft (GPL/AGPL/LGPL/MPL) dependency has snuck in anywhere across the six language ecosystems this repo spans. Do not publish this license until that audit is clean, or until any copyleft dependency found is removed/replaced.

7. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL BLOQR SYSTEMS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

8. GOVERNING LAW

[OPEN QUESTION] — needs the actual jurisdiction Bloqr Systems is domiciled in; left as a placeholder to match bloqr-compiler's license, which has the same open item.

This license is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction where Bloqr Systems is domiciled, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

9. CHANGES TO THIS LICENSE

Bloqr Systems reserves the right to change these license terms for future versions of the Software. Changes will not retroactively apply to prior versions you are already using under previous license terms, but new versions must be used under updated terms.

For questions about this license, contact: legal@bloqr.dev For commercial licensing inquiries, contact: sales@bloqr.dev

Open questions for the repo owner / counsel

Published-package interaction. bloqr-core already publishes real packages under permissive terms today via their own registries' metadata: @bloqr/compiler-core (JSR), bloqr-validator-core / bloqr-validator-core-cli / bloqr-compiler (crates.io), Bloqr.Compiler.Abstractions / Bloqr.Compiler.Core (NuGet via GitHub Packages). Each registry's package metadata currently says GPL-3.0. Switching the repo's license changes what those packages should declare going forward — but already-published versions are immutable on their registries and will keep showing GPL-3.0 forever. Decide: is a version bump + republish under the new license terms required for each, and on what timeline relative to the repo-wide license swap?
SPDX identifier. This draft's license is not a standard SPDX-listed identifier (it's the same custom category as bloqr-compiler's). Some package registries want an SPDX identifier or a specific string; NuGet, crates.io, and JSR all support a LICENSE-FILE-only path (no SPDX requirement), so this shouldn't block anything, but worth confirming per-registry before the swap.
Existing external forks/clones. Anyone who already cloned/forked bloqr-core under the current MIT-claiming LICENSE file arguably has a colorable claim to keep using that snapshot under MIT terms (depending on jurisdiction and how look-back relicensing is typically treated) — worth a short note in the eventual CHANGELOG/release notes marking the exact commit/date the license changed, so there's a clean line between "MIT-era" and "Bloqr-license-era" history.
Enforcement posture. See the [OPEN QUESTION] under Section 2 above — bloqr-core has no built-in usage metering the way bloqr-compiler does, so this license is closer to an honor-system + trademark/branding enforcement model than a technically-enforced one. Confirm that's an accepted tradeoff.