QUANTUM GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (QGPL)
Version 3.0 — Quantum‑Safe Edition

Copyright © 2026 The Open Reality Initiative.
Author: Dr. Šarūnas Grigaliūnas

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document,
but changing it is not allowed.

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Preamble
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The Quantum General Public License (QGPL) is a copyleft license intended for the open
sharing of observation outputs (“Results”) and related materials, including datasets,
documentation, and (when provided) the code and configurations used to produce or
process those Results.

This version adds explicit post‑quantum (“quantum‑resistant”) requirements for
distribution integrity and, when cryptography is used for access or transport,
for quantum‑resistant (or hybrid) key establishment and signatures. These technical
requirements are intended to reduce reliance on public‑key cryptosystems that are
known to be vulnerable to large‑scale quantum attacks.

This License is not a security guarantee. It is a legal permission and set of
conditions for exercising rights in the Work.

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS
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0. Definitions

“License” means this Quantum General Public License (QGPL) version 3.0.

“Licensor” means the copyright holder(s) or other rights holder(s) that are licensing
the Work under this License.

“You” (or “Recipient”) means an individual or legal entity exercising permissions
granted by this License.

“Work” means any material that the Licensor makes available under this License,
including, as applicable:
  (a) “Result(s)” (defined below);
  (b) datasets and database contents;
  (c) documentation, papers, reports, and other explanatory text;
  (d) software source code, scripts, notebooks, build files, configuration files,
      and/or firmware (“Apparatus Code”); and
  (e) any other copyrightable or database‑protected materials included with (a)–(d).

“Phenomenon” means any system, data, equation, process, or potential state that may
be measured, computed, simulated, or otherwise examined.

“Apparatus” means any tool, method, instrument, algorithm, or biological entity used
to interact with the Phenomenon. This includes, without limitation, software,
computers (classical or quantum), measurement devices, laboratory instruments,
and human operators.

“Observation” means an act of measurement, calculation, simulation, inference,
or other procedure that produces a definite output.

“Result” (or “Observation Output”) means the specific output produced by an
Observation, including values, sequences, measurements, derived quantities,
model outputs, and recorded data.

“Modify” means to copy from, adapt, transform, arrange, translate, correct, extend,
or otherwise create a work based on the Work, where such action is reserved to the
Licensor under applicable copyright and/or database laws.

“Distribute” means to convey, provide, publish, sublicense, transmit, or otherwise
make available the Work (or a Modified Work) to another party, including by public
download, package repositories, content delivery networks, or physical media.

“Quantum‑Vulnerable Public‑Key Cryptography” means public‑key schemes whose security
is based on integer factorization and/or discrete logarithms (including common RSA,
finite‑field Diffie‑Hellman, elliptic‑curve Diffie‑Hellman, DSA, ECDSA, and EdDSA),
and any successor schemes that are comparably vulnerable to large‑scale quantum
attacks.

“Quantum‑Resistant Cryptography” means post‑quantum cryptography algorithms that are
standardized by NIST as:
  • ML‑KEM (FIPS 203) for key encapsulation, and/or any later NIST revision or
    replacement thereof; and
  • ML‑DSA (FIPS 204) and/or SLH‑DSA (FIPS 205) for digital signatures, and/or any
    later NIST revision or replacement thereof;
and also includes NIST‑approved stateful hash‑based signature schemes (XMSS, LMS)
as specified in NIST SP 800‑208, and/or later NIST revisions or replacements.

“Quantum‑Safe Distribution Metadata” means, at minimum: (i) a cryptographic hash
of the distributed artifact, (ii) a Quantum‑Resistant digital signature over that
hash (or over the artifact), (iii) the corresponding public key(s), and (iv) an
unambiguous identifier of the algorithm(s) and parameter set(s) used.

1. Scope of Rights; Relationship to Law

1.1 Copyright and related rights. Subject to the conditions of this License, the
Licensor grants You a worldwide, royalty‑free, non‑exclusive license to exercise
the rights in the Work that are controlled by the Licensor under copyright and
related rights (including neighboring rights) to:
  (a) use, reproduce, and run the Work;
  (b) Distribute the Work;
  (c) Modify the Work and Distribute Modified Works; and
  (d) publicly display, perform, and communicate the Work to the public.

1.2 Database rights. Where the Work is subject to sui generis database rights or
similar rights, the Licensor grants You a worldwide, royalty‑free, non‑exclusive
license to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Distribute all or a substantial part of
the database contents, and to create and Distribute databases that incorporate
all or a substantial part of those contents, subject to this License.

1.3 Facts and uncopyrightable material. In many jurisdictions, facts, numbers, and
other purely factual information are not protected by copyright. To the extent any
Result (or portion of a Result) is not protected by copyright, this License is
intended to operate as a public permission and covenant not to sue under any rights
the Licensor may hold (including database rights, where applicable), to allow the
broadest reuse consistent with applicable law.

2. Copyleft; Share‑Alike Condition (Entangled Freedom)

2.1 License of Modified Works. If You Distribute a Modified Work, You must license
the Modified Work, as a whole, under this same License (QGPL v3.0), and include a
copy of this License with the Modified Work.

2.2 Downstream recipients. You must ensure that each recipient of the Work or a
Modified Work receives the Work under this License and is informed of their rights
under this License.

2.3 No relicensing under more restrictive terms. You may not Distribute the Work
(or a Modified Work) under any terms that would restrict the rights granted by
this License.

3. Notices; Attribution; Provenance

3.1 License notice. You must keep intact all copyright notices, license notices,
and attribution statements contained in the Work.

3.2 Change notices. If You Modify the Work, You must add prominent notices stating
that You changed the Work and the date of the change.

3.3 Provenance integrity. You may not misrepresent the origin of the Work or any
Result. If You Distribute a Result with corrections, filtering, normalization,
or other transformations, You must clearly indicate that the distributed Result
is modified relative to the original.

4. No Access Restrictions; No Technical Barriers

4.1 No denial of access. You may not use legal terms, contract terms, patents,
or technical measures to prevent others from exercising the rights granted by this
License.

4.2 No DRM and no cryptographic locks to restrict rights. You may not Distribute
the Work in a form that is effectively controlled by digital restrictions management
or cryptographic access controls that prevent recipients from exercising rights
granted by this License. If You Distribute the Work in an encrypted or access‑
controlled form for transport or storage, You must also provide a practical means
for recipients to obtain an unencumbered copy under this License.

5. Quantum‑Safe Requirements (Quantum Protection)

5.1 Quantum‑safe release integrity (mandatory for Distribution). If You Distribute
the Work (or a Modified Work), You must provide Quantum‑Safe Distribution Metadata
for the distributed artifact using at least one Quantum‑Resistant signature scheme
(as defined in Section 0). The metadata must be made available with the same level
of accessibility as the artifact itself.

5.2 Quantum‑safe (or hybrid) key establishment when cryptography is used for
transport or access. If You provide the Work to recipients over a network using
cryptographic authentication, key agreement, or encrypted transport, You must
support Quantum‑Resistant key establishment (e.g., ML‑KEM) or a hybrid construction
that combines Quantum‑Resistant key establishment with a classical method. You must
not rely solely on Quantum‑Vulnerable Public‑Key Cryptography for establishing the
confidentiality or authenticity of such transport.

5.3 Algorithm agility. If NIST publishes revisions, errata, or replacements for the
standards referenced in the definition of Quantum‑Resistant Cryptography, You may
use the revised or replacement standards to satisfy Sections 5.1 and 5.2.

5.4 No security claims by default. This License does not grant permission to make
false or misleading security claims about the Work. Compliance with Section 5 does
not imply that any particular security property is achieved.

6. Patent License

6.1 Patent grant. Each Licensor grants You a worldwide, royalty‑free, non‑exclusive,
irrevocable (except as stated in Section 7) patent license to make, have made, use,
offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license
applies only to patent claims licensable by the Licensor that would be infringed
by exercising rights granted by this License in the unmodified Work.

6.2 Patent retaliation. If You initiate patent litigation (including a cross‑claim
or counterclaim) alleging that the Work infringes a patent, then any patent licenses
granted to You under this License for the Work terminate as of the date such
litigation is filed.

7. Termination

7.1 Automatic termination. Your rights under this License terminate automatically
if You fail to comply with its terms.

7.2 Reinstatement. If You cease all violation of this License, then Your license
is reinstated provisionally, unless and until the Licensor explicitly and finally
terminates Your rights.

8. Disclaimer of Warranty

THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON‑INFRINGEMENT. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY,
ACCURACY, SECURITY, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK IS WITH YOU.

9. Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER IN TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE),
CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL ANY LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER
ARISING AS A RESULT OF THIS LICENSE OR OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WORK.

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How to Apply These Terms (Notice Template)
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Attach the following notice to the Work, Result, dataset, or distribution:

OBSERVATION DATA / WORK NOTICE
This Work (including any included Results) is released under the Quantum General Public
License (QGPL) v3.0 — Quantum‑Safe Edition.
You may use, modify, and distribute this Work under the terms of the QGPL v3.0.

Quantum‑Safe Distribution Metadata (Section 5) is provided with this distribution.

Contact: Dr. Šarūnas Grigaliūnas <info@qgpl.org>
