Viral Public License

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The Viral Public License (VPL) is a permissive copyleft software license created by Charlotte Fang in January 2019. The license combines features of permissive licenses like MIT/BSD with the viral nature of the GNU General Public License, but removes additional restrictions. The VPL is characterized by two core principles: (1) waiving all rights to the licensed work, similar to public domain dedication, and (2) requiring that any derivative work must also use the VPL, ensuring perpetual openness through a viral mechanism. First used in the Against New Games manifesto published by XCELA Group in January 2019, the license became notable for its later adoption by Remilia Corporation projects, particularly Milady Maker, where it played a key role in fostering derivative works and memetic propagation within the ecosystem. The VPL predates Michael Overby's similar CC0-ShareAlike license published in July 2020.

History

Creation

The Viral Public License was created by Charlotte Fang in January 2019 working within the XCELA Group. Its first known application was to the "Against New Games" manifesto published that same month. The VPL was subsequently applied to XCELA's "Extortion Industry" manifesto in March 2019.

The license was conceptually aligned with XCELA's philosophical positions on information freedom, digital sovereignty, and resistance to corporate platform dependence. It represented a practical implementation of ideas that would be more explicitly articulated in "Extortion Industry", which characterized copyright enforcement as a form of extortion through artificial scarcity.

Documentation and formalization

The earliest documented use of the VPL was applied to the Against New Games manifesto in January 2019. Its formal web presence was established when viralpubliclicense.org was registered in February 2020, with the site first archived by the Internet Archive in May 2020. The chronology of the VPL's development is significant because it predates similar licenses, such as Michael Overby's CC0-ShareAlike license published in July 2020.

Adoption by Remilia Corporation

When XCELA Group was incorporated into Remilia Corporation in March 2022, the VPL continued to be utilized across various Remilia projects. Most notably, it was applied to the Milady Maker NFT collection, which had launched in August 2021.

The application of the VPL to Milady Maker proved particularly significant, as it enabled and encouraged a thriving ecosystem of derivative works, remixes, and reinterpretations of the original NFTs. This use case demonstrated the license's practical value in fostering community participation and memetic propagation within digital art projects.

License details

Text and structure

The full text of the Viral Public License is concise, consisting of a brief preamble followed by two conditions:

The license is notable for its clarity and brevity compared to most software licenses, which often contain extensive legal terminology and complex conditions. This simplicity aligns with the license's goal of minimizing restrictions while maximizing both freedom and protection from proprietary capture.

Key principles

The VPL operates on two core principles:

1. **Permissiveness**: The license waives "all associated ownership, attribution and copy rights," allowing unrestricted use, modification, and redistribution of the licensed work. This aspect is similar to public domain dedication or highly permissive licenses like CC0.

2. **Virality**: The license requires that any derivative works "must retain the ENTIRETY of this license," ensuring that derivatives maintain the same freedoms as the original. This aspect is similar to strong copyleft licenses like the GNU GPL, but without their additional restrictions.

The combination of these principles creates what Fang described as "a perfect copyleft virus, extending copyright waiving licenses like the CC0 or Public Domain by not just waiving rights but also requiring projects using it to maintain the license waiving rights too."

Vampiric potential

In analyzing the VPL, Fang noted its "vampiric" potential—the ability to be applied on top of works released under permissive licenses like MIT, BSD, and CC0. Because the VPL only introduces a restriction (virality) to an otherwise fully permissive license, it can be layered on top of permissively licensed works without violating their terms.

This characteristic is particularly relevant for CC0-licensed works, which Fang described as having a "vulnerability to relicensing" due to their waiver of all protections. The VPL can effectively "capture" such works by adding the viral clause while maintaining all other freedoms, ensuring that future derivatives cannot be enclosed under more restrictive licenses.

Comparison to other licenses

The VPL can be positioned in relation to several other common licensing approaches:

• **MIT/BSD licenses**: Like these permissive licenses, the VPL allows unrestricted use, modification, and redistribution. However, it differs in not requiring attribution and in its viral nature.

• **GNU GPL**: Like this strong copyleft license, the VPL ensures that derivatives maintain the same freedoms as the original. However, it differs in removing the GPL's various other restrictions and requirements.

• **CC0**: Like this public domain dedication tool, the VPL waives rights to the licensed work. However, it differs in adding the viral component that prevents future derivatives from being placed under more restrictive licenses.

• **CC-BY-SA**: Like this Creative Commons license, the VPL combines permissiveness with share-alike requirements. However, it differs in not requiring attribution and in having fewer additional conditions.

In Fang's terminology, the VPL effectively functions as a "CC0-ShareAlike" license—a combination that didn't exist in the Creative Commons suite at the time of its creation.

Applications and significance

Early use in XCELA projects

The VPL's first applications were to XCELA Group's publications: "Against New Games" in January 2019 and "Extortion Industry" in March 2019. These uses were philosophically aligned with the content of the manifestos, particularly "Extortion Industry," which explicitly critiqued copyright-based business models as forms of extortion.

By releasing these critiques under a license that embodied their principles, XCELA demonstrated a commitment to practical implementation of its ideas rather than merely theoretical advocacy.

Role in Milady Maker ecosystem

The VPL's most significant and visible application has been to Milady Maker, the NFT collection launched by Remilia Corporation in August 2021. By applying the VPL to this collection, Remilia effectively encouraged the creation of derivative works and remixes while ensuring that these derivatives would maintain the same freedoms.

This application has been described as core to Remilia's derivative strategy within the NFT space, contrasting with the approach of collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, which emphasized exclusive ownership rights. According to proponents, this approach recognized that "the real potential value of the image is its propensity to propagate freely, whether that be in the form of memes, art, pfps, or derivatives."

The use of the VPL in Milady Maker enabled practices that would be considered infringements in other contexts, such as "stealing" profile pictures or creating unofficial derivatives, to be reframed as community participation and value creation.

Connection to network spirituality

The VPL's application to Remilia projects, particularly Milady Maker, has been characterized as "signal of network spirituality alignment." This connection stems from the license's philosophical alignment with network spirituality's emphasis on non-possessive creation and fluid creative exchange. In this framework, the license serves not merely as a legal tool but as a mechanism for facilitating the type of networked creation that network spirituality envisions.

The VPL has been described as providing "pre-emptive defense against vulture revisionism" in the context of Remilia projects. This function relates to the license's ability to prevent proprietary capture of creative works through its viral clause.

By ensuring that derivatives must maintain the same freedoms as the original, the VPL creates a form of protection against the reappropriation of networked creations by entities seeking to enclose them under more restrictive licenses. This protection aligns with Remilia's concerns about vulture revisionism—the practice of retroactively attributing collectively produced work to specific individuals, particularly when those individuals were not the original creators.

Philosophical context

Information freedom

The VPL embodies a strong commitment to information freedom—the principle that information should flow freely without artificial restrictions. This position aligns with early internet culture's ethos of "information wants to be free" and with critiques of intellectual property as an artificial imposition of scarcity on inherently abundant resources.

However, the VPL distinguishes itself from pure public domain approaches by adding the viral clause that prevents future proprietary capture. This addition reflects a recognition that simply removing all restrictions can lead to the reenclosure of information under more restrictive terms by entities with greater resources or market power.

Post-authorship

The VPL connects to Remilia's concept of post-authorship—a philosophical framework that challenges traditional notions of individual creation and ownership in favor of networked, collective, or pseudonymous production. By waiving attribution requirements while ensuring continued freedom for derivatives, the license facilitates fluid creative exchange without ego attachment.

This alignment with post-authorship principles is evident in the VPL's application to projects like Milady Maker, where it enabled the emergence of a derivative ecosystem characterized by fluid borrowing and remixing rather than rigid ownership boundaries.

Digital sovereignty

The VPL relates to XCELA Group's emphasis on digital sovereignty—the idea that freedom in online spaces depends on self-sufficiency and ownership of one's digital presence. While this connection may seem counterintuitive given the license's waiver of ownership rights, the VPL serves digital sovereignty by preventing corporate capture of shared resources.

By ensuring that creative works remain freely available for community use rather than being enclosed under restrictive licenses, the VPL helps maintain the commons as a space of collective sovereignty rather than corporate dominance.

Reception and influence

As a niche license primarily used within XCELA and Remilia projects, the VPL has not received extensive mainstream legal or academic analysis. However, its application to projects like Milady Maker has demonstrated its practical utility in fostering derivative ecosystems and memetic propagation.

The license's combination of permissiveness with viral protection represents a distinctive approach to the challenge of balancing freedom and commons protection. While similar in concept to later developments like Overby's CC0-ShareAlike license, the VPL's creation in January 2019 positions it as an early articulation of this approach, and with an explicitly ideological framing.

See also

• XCELA Group
• Charlotte Fang
• Remilia Corporation
• Post-authorship
• Network spirituality
• Milady Maker
• Against New Games
• Extortion Industry

External links

• Official website