AI's free web scraping days may be over, thanks to this new licensing protocol (www.zdnet.com)

A new open licensing protocol called Really Simple Licensing (RSL) aims to revolutionize how AI systems access web content by introducing machine-readable licensing terms directly into web pages. Unlike the traditional robots.txt file, which only allowed or blocked crawling without enforcing compensation or attribution, RSL enables content creators to specify whether their work is free to crawl, requires attribution, or entails payments—either per crawl or per AI inference. This marks a critical shift as AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini increasingly draw on vast amounts of online content without clear permission or payment to the original publishers. RSL’s technical framework includes a shared vocabulary for licensing terms, automated licensing processes, and standardized metadata catalogs through RSS and Schema.org. It also supports secure licensing for paywalled or proprietary content and collective licensing via the RSL Collective, a nonprofit rights-management entity designed to pool smaller creators’ rights and negotiate with AI companies. Spearheaded by key figures behind foundational web protocols and backed by industry leaders like Tim O’Reilly, RSL could become a new web standard that balances the rights of content creators with the growing AI ecosystem’s needs. If broadly adopted, RSL offers a way to stem the current "free-for-all" AI use of web content, potentially ensuring fair compensation and sustainable content ecosystems in the evolving AI economy.