license

JNK License 1.1

Anti-Capitalist, Share-Alike, Post-Open-Source

This is a non-commercial, remix-friendly license for creative and software projects.
It’s post-open-source: it shares the ethos of free culture, not the loopholes of permissionless monetization.
This license stands on its own, but if legal systems demand comparisons, the Anti-Capitalist Software License for code and Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for media reflect its stance most closely.

You’re free to learn from, experiment with, remix, build on, and share works under this license, as long as it’s not for commercial purposes.
Take things apart, make them yours, use them in your projects, and pass them on, but not for a price.
You may use this work in contexts where it supports your activity, as long as it is not itself part of what generates revenue.

Selling, charging for access, or wrapping these works in ads, NFTs, subscriptions, AI training, or other profit-driven systems is not allowed.
Voluntary support is allowed, but access to any version, form, or part of the work must never require payment.

If you're unsure whether your use fits this license, ask yourself:
Are you creating something, or extracting from something?
And if you’re still not sure, or want to do something that touches the edge, just reach out. A conversation is better than a misstep.

If you use these works in something you're releasing, you must release your contributions under the same license, or one that clearly respects its non-commercial, anti-corporate, remix-friendly intent.
This includes derivative works such as mods, plugins, or ports. If you publish such extensions, you must:
– share the source code, project files, or other editable assets needed to reproduce or modify your contribution,
– clearly link back to the original work and this license (for example in a README or description).
Your contribution must remain free to access and non-commercial in all forms.

This license is not about control. It is about keeping freedom sustainable by protecting a space where creative work remains public, shared and unfenced, rather than locked behind paywalls or buried in products.
It supports those who create out of curiosity, who remix because something matters to them, and who build not for profit but for the joy of it.
It carries forward the spirit of independent cultures where sharing was the norm and selling was never the point.

JNK stands for *Just Use, No Kapitalism* (with a K, intentionally).
It also nods to the idea that licenses are junk. In a better world, we wouldn’t need them. Until then: this is the default we make.

If that speaks to you, use it. Let it speak through your work.

why?

From the very beginning I didn't want to slap MIT or GPL on my projects. I wanted something that felt like it's a part of the project itself or could be it's own project inside of .dstwre/. Code, visuals, audio, tools, all DIY. The license had to fit in.

The more I read existing licenses, the more I noticed how many holes they have for what I actually care about. Classic open source licenses are great for freedom, but they're also wide open for extraction. In my eyes corporations can take your work, wrap it in products, and sell it back. On the other side, non-commercial licenses are often vague, full of grey areas, and still don't really say no, this is not raw material for your corporation.

The more I read about it, the less I wanted any already existing option to express what I want:
Code and assets should be always free and accessible without paywalls, ads etc. There should not be any AI training/scraping, no commercialization, and so on.

I know a license can't stop bad actors. People can ignore it, and I'm not designing this for courtrooms. It's more like a written agreement for the people who actually care:
either cool, I respect this and I'll use it on those terms or okay, this doesn't fit what I want, I'll walk away.

So JNK ended up being a split of legal text and manifesto. A post-open-source license that closes the doors I don't want open, even if that makes it harder to use, and even if it scares off the mainstream.