What counts as "commercial use"?
Any use intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. If your organisation generates revenue from activities that involve our software, that is commercial use. This includes market research firms running Panel Studio panels for paying clients, agencies using panel data for client projects, and enterprises running the software internally as part of operations that generate revenue.
Can I evaluate the software before buying a licence?
Yes. Internal evaluation, prototyping, and proof of concept work are non commercial use and do not require a licence. Take as long as you need. The licence is only required when the software enters a commercial or production context.
I work at a university. Can my research group use this?
Yes, at no cost. Academic research, teaching, and thesis work are non commercial use. If your university later commercialises the research (e.g. through a spinout company), the spinout would need a commercial licence at that point.
We are a non profit. Do we need a licence?
If you are using the software for activities that do not generate revenue, no. If your organisation uses the software as part of a service that generates revenue (e.g. a paid training programme or consultancy arm), that use is commercial and requires a licence.
Can I fork or redistribute the code?
No. The BSL 1.1 Additional Use Grant does not permit redistribution or derivative works. You may not fork the repository and distribute your own version, whether commercially or non commercially. If you want to build on our software, contact us about a commercial licence with redistribution rights.
What happens after five years?
Each version converts to the Apache License 2.0 on its Change Date (five years after release). After conversion, that specific version becomes fully open source: you can use, modify, redistribute, and commercialise it without restriction. Newer versions released in the interim remain under BSL 1.1 until their own five year window expires.
What is the DYNAMICS-8 specification licence?
The DYNAMICS-8 personality framework specification is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You can use, cite, build on, and commercialise the specification freely, as long as you credit Kronaxis. We want DYNAMICS-8 to become a widely adopted standard. The reference implementations that ship inside Panel Studio are covered by BSL 1.1, not CC BY 4.0.
What about the HuggingFace datasets?
Our sample persona dataset (500 personas) is published on HuggingFace under CC BY-NC 4.0: free for non commercial use with attribution. Full scale panels (thousands of personas across 20 countries) are generated through Panel Studio subscriptions. DYNAMICS reasoning traces are proprietary training data available via the Panel Studio API under commercial licence.
Who uses BSL 1.1?
The Business Source License was created by MariaDB and is used by HashiCorp (Terraform, Vault, Consul), Sentry, CockroachDB, and other established infrastructure companies. It is a recognised, professionally reviewed licence with established precedent.
How do I get a commercial licence?
Email
contact@kronaxis.co.uk with your company name, intended use case, and estimated scale. We will respond within two business days with a tailored proposal.