OMLA Legal Hub

1. The OMLA legal documents

The following operative documents govern your use of OMLA. Each is a standalone page. Read the one that applies to you; together they form the complete legal framework.

Two separate licensing regimes. The OMLA Model License governs registered models. It is distinct from the Apache License 2.0, which governs OMLA's platform source code. Do not conflate the two.

2. No-Custody & Financial Disclaimer

This is the authoritative, reusable No-Custody & Financial Disclaimer. It is the controlling source for the wording that appears on the License, Users, Registration, FAQ, Registry Integrity, and other OMLA pages. Where any other page restates this disclaimer, this version governs.

2.1 What OMLA does

OMLA operates a public model registry — an information service. Specifically, OMLA:

• maintains a public registry of registered models: signed manifests containing public keys, weight hashes, accepted License versions, declared lineage, royalty splits, payee wallets, and public payment pointers;
• verifies registration and manifest-update signatures made with supported classical, post-quantum, or hybrid schemes; Ed25519 alone is classical, while ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, and the recommended hybrid Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65 option provide post-quantum capability;
• publishes signed, static registry snapshots that anyone may download, verify, and mirror; and
• publishes the open resolver (omla-resolve) — the deterministic algorithm commercial users run themselves to compute how the royalty they owe is distributed across payee wallets.

2.2 What OMLA does not do

OMLA does not, at any registry status (ACTIVE, REVOKED, or DELISTED) or otherwise:

• hold, receive, take possession of, or take title to any funds;
• move, route, forward, disburse, split, or transmit any payment;
• escrow, hold pending, freeze, seize, or hold back any funds (it has none to hold);
• convert currency or crypto-assets, or select a payment rail on anyone's behalf;
• refund any payment (OMLA never received it, so it cannot refund it);
• collect royalties, receive usage or payment data, issue invoices, or operate any "OMLA balance" or wallet that holds value;
• deduct, skim, or cap fees on a settlement (any routing or conversion fees belong entirely to the settling parties; OMLA caps nothing it does not operate); or
• act as a party to, intermediary of, beneficiary of, or guarantor of any settlement.

2.3 How settlement works

Settlement is strictly peer-to-peer. The commercial user self-assesses the royalty from its own records, computes the payee-by-payee distribution with the open resolver against a signed registry snapshot, and pays each payee directly, using the payment pointers the payee itself published. Any transfer, routing, or conversion fees are the settling parties' own costs. OMLA is not involved in the transfer of value and does not observe, verify, record, or track it. Registry status never reflects payment behaviour — enforcement of payment is the creators' license right.

2.4 There are no statements — and no knowledge to disclose

Under License v2.0 OMLA issues no royalty notices of any kind. Settlement occurs once per exact calendar quarter (YYYY-Q1 through YYYY-Q4) and is due within 60 days after quarter end. The payer's own usage ledger, resolver output, and payment evidence are its records. Nothing is reported or submitted to OMLA, and OMLA does not want it. Payee lines below US$0.10 per wallet per calendar quarter are dropped and renormalized; there is no carry-forward ledger. No funds or settlement data are held by OMLA.

2.5 No financial services, no investment, no securities

OMLA is not a money transmitter, money-services business, payment processor, escrow agent, bank, trust company, broker-dealer, exchange, or investment adviser, and it does not require any license in those capacities to publish information. No registry entry, wallet identifier, payment pointer, snapshot, or other OMLA artifact is a security, an investment contract, a deposit, or a promise of profit. OMLA membership and any donations to OMLA are separate from royalties and are never royalty custody.

3. DMCA / IP Dispute Policy

OMLA respects intellectual-property rights and expects its users to do the same. This section describes how to report claimed copyright infringement, how to respond to such a report, and OMLA's repeat-infringer policy.

Important scope note. OMLA does not host model weight files. The registry stores model metadata, weight hashes, public keys, accepted License evidence, public royalty splits and payment pointers, lineage references, and registry-integrity status. Disputes about the accuracy or legitimacy of an OMLA registration (for example, a contested lineage or split) are handled through the registry-integrity and complaint workflows, not the copyright procedure below. The procedure below applies to material that OMLA itself publishes on omla-ai.org (for example, a documentation page, an image, or a board headshot).

3.1 Designated agent

Send copyright notices and counter-notices to OMLA's designated agent:

DMCA Designated Agent, Open Model Licensing Association
Email: dmca@omla-ai.org
(Legal correspondence: legal@omla-ai.org)

A formal mailing address and U.S. Copyright Office designated-agent registration are being completed as OMLA finalizes its organization; until that registration is perfected, email to dmca@omla-ai.org is the operative intake channel and OMLA will act on valid notices as described below.

3.2 Filing a notice of claimed infringement

If you believe material published by OMLA on omla-ai.org infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to act for, send a written notice to the designated agent that includes all of the following:

1. Your contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address).
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed.
3. Identification of the material you claim is infringing, with enough detail to locate it — including the URL on omla-ai.org.
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
5. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf.
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

OMLA will review complete notices promptly and will remove or disable access to material it determines is properly the subject of a valid notice. Incomplete notices may delay or prevent action.

3.3 Counter-notice

If material of yours was removed or disabled and you believe this was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the designated agent that includes:

1. Your contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address).
2. Identification of the material that was removed or disabled and the location at which it appeared before removal.
3. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.
4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which OMLA may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice or that person's agent.
5. Your physical or electronic signature.

Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, OMLA may restore the removed material in not fewer than 10 nor more than 14 business days following receipt, unless the original complainant first notifies OMLA that it has filed a court action seeking to restrain the allegedly infringing activity. OMLA reviews counter-notices on the same timeline used for notices.

3.4 Repeat-infringer policy

OMLA will, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, disable or terminate the accounts of users who are determined to be repeat infringers. Repeat infringement, or a pattern of materially false registrations or notices, may also move a model's registry-integrity status (ACTIVE → REVOKED or, after review, DELISTED). No funds are seized or held by OMLA at any status, consistent with the No-Custody & Financial Disclaimer.

3.5 Misrepresentation

Under 17 U.S.C. §512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages. Do not make false claims.

3.6 Other IP and trademark disputes

For trademark concerns, claimed misuse of OMLA marks, or other intellectual-property matters that are not copyright takedowns, contact legal@omla-ai.org. For disputes about the accuracy of a registration, lineage, or contribution split, use the complaint workflow.

4. Contacts

• General: hello@omla-ai.org
• Legal: legal@omla-ai.org
• Privacy / data protection: privacy@omla-ai.org
• IP / DMCA: dmca@omla-ai.org
• Registry-integrity complaints: use the complaint form

5. About these documents

These are operative documents. The OMLA Model License is a binding clickwrap accepted at registration; the Terms of Service are accepted by using the service. Each document carries its own version and effective date.

Governing law and disputes. These documents are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, with the Federal Arbitration Act governing their arbitration provisions. Unresolved disputes proceed by binding individual AAA arbitration: the Consumer Arbitration Rules apply only to a qualifying consumer dispute, and the Commercial Arbitration Rules apply otherwise. The provisions include a class-action waiver and a small-claims carve-out and do not waive mandatory consumer rights that cannot lawfully be waived. The specific terms and jurisdictional carve-outs are set out in full in the Terms of Service and OMLA Model License.

Translations. Translations are provided for convenience; the English version governs. Where any conflict or ambiguity exists between the English version and a translation, the English version controls, except where applicable mandatory local law requires otherwise.

Version 2.0 — Effective 2026-07-16 · Last updated 2026-07-16