Every model on the record: who made it, what it builds on, and where to pay its creators.
A model under the OMLA License is free for non-commercial use and carries a simple 30% royalty on commercial use. OMLA publishes each model's signed manifest — identity, lineage, royalty split, and public payment pointers. Commercial users meter their own usage, resolve each wallet's share with the open resolver, and pay creators directly. The license does not govern acceptable uses, merging, open-source requirements, or output restrictions; model makers may attach sublicenses covering those aspects.
Most of the money flows to the original creators. A fine-tune retains at most 5% — the rest flows upstream through the lineage. OMLA keeps no records of usage, payers, or payments — because it never receives them.
Non‑Commercial Use
OMLA‑licensed models are free to use for non‑commercial purposes, defined as activities that do not directly or indirectly generate revenue, financial contributions, or other material benefit. Examples include academic research, personal projects, and internal training. This also covers internal model training and development of future models, as well as hobby experimentation.
Commercial Use
Any use that seeks or results in financial gain—whether through sales, subscriptions, advertising, paid services, fundraising, sponsorships, or enhancing the value of another product or service (e.g., a boat tour using AI to announce fish sightings)—is considered commercial use. For commercial use by profit‑seeking individuals or organizations, the greater of 30% of revenue or 30% of run cost is owed to the model creators — self-assessed by the user and paid to each creator's wallet directly.
Built by tinkerers who kept finding their work inside other people's products. Jake started this from his garage in Seattle; the rest is community. Read the story or see how the whole system works.
Four steps, start to finish
-
Creators publish & sign
A creator registers a model with a signed manifest: identity, lineage, royalty split, and public payment pointers. One record, signed end to end.
-
OMLA serves the registry
Every manifest is published as signed, mirrorable JSON — snapshots plus a thin read API. That is all OMLA does.
-
Users meter & resolve
Commercial users meter their own usage, self-assess the 30% royalty on the greater of revenue or run cost, and run the open resolver to get a percentage per wallet.
-
Users pay wallets directly
Payment goes straight to each creator's published pointers. No reporting, no accounts, no records at OMLA — ever.
The overview walks the whole system, including where every dollar goes.
Two sides of the same deal
I make models
Publish and sign your model, declare its split and public payment pointers, and get paid directly — by every commercial user of your model and of everything built on it. Free non-commercial use keeps your community reach.
The creator's guide → For usersI use models
Free for research and hobby work. Making money with a model? Meter your own usage, resolve the split with the open resolver, and pay its creators directly — no account, no reporting, no waiting on anyone.
The user's guide →Find your lane
Overview
The whole system — from signed manifest to direct settlement — on one page.
Creators
Publish, declare your split, and get paid directly for commercial use.
Users
Meter, resolve, pay: the direct-settlement routine for indie shops and enterprises alike.
Registry
Browse every registered model, its lineage, its status, and its public payment manifest.
License
The full royalty terms — one rule, in plain English.
Docs
The manifest schema, signed snapshots, resolver spec, and integration guides.
Two lanes
Personal/Research: free. Commercial: 30% of the greater of revenue or run cost — self-assessed, resolved with the open algorithm, and paid directly to creators' wallets.
One model → one manifest
A signed public record: identity, lineage, royalty split, and payment pointers. Everything a payer needs — no account, no contact with OMLA.
Recursive splits
Money attributed to a derivative flows through its published split, then through its parents' splits, all the way up the lineage. Deep upstream creators are paid automatically.
Open + practical
No copyleft, no lock‑in. Keep fine‑tunes private; just honor royalties on commercial use.