CONTENT LICENSING LANGUAGE TEMPLATE:
PROHIBITING USE

The following content licensing language template is intended as an addendum for Archives that license archival material, especially for publication purposes. This license is the result of a collaborative effort by members of the Trust in Archives Initiative (TAI).

Consideration was given to the fact that many standard post-production techniques (including but not limited to color correction, image stabilization, dirt and scratch reduction, etc.) are now being performed by assistive Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. In many cases, Licensees may be unable to easily know whether software used is “AI powered” or not.

The focus of this template is to ensure the preservation, integrity, and authenticity of the archival content by preventing the use of AI software on it. For those Archives that may allow for limited use of AI on their materials, please see the Limited Use template here; TAI has provided both licenses as we recognize that Archives may license materials to projects with dramatically different publishing processes (such as a documentary or a museum catalogue).

Please note: The information contained in this site is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice. Please have an attorney review before adding to your existing content licenses.

Addendum for Licenses Prohibiting AI Use

Licensor [name of institution] (referred to as “Licensor” below), maintains an archival collection (referred to as “Content” below), which Licensor makes available to licensees such as [name of client] (referred to as “Licensee” below) for use in its program (referred to as “Program” below). The Licensor wishes to make clear that, as a steward and conservator of archival material, maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the Content is the Licensor’s highest priority, and that the Licensee has a duty with respect to the handling of Content. As such, the use of generative tools (e.g., Artificial Intelligence “AI”, or “smart” software) including but not limited to generative software, Large Language Models (LLMs), Small Language Models (SLMs), or Vision Language Models (VLMs) – referred to categorically as “AI software” below – is prohibited on the Content being licensed by Licensee.

Furthermore, the Licensor does not permit the use of licensed Content, or any materials from its Content library, or associated metadata (including, without limitation, caption information, description, summary, or keywords) to be used for machine learning, data mining, or for training AI software, large or small language models, or other AI software tools. Furthermore, no permissions are granted to Licensee by Licensor, or to any third party or assignee, to train AI software on the Content as it appears in the Licensee’s Program.

If there is an intent to use AI software on licensed Content, the Licensee must receive prior approval from the Licensor. In the event that the Licensor believes that Licensee has breached this agreement, the Licensor shall provide written notice outlining the alleged breach and the reasonable steps that must be taken to remedy it (within x amount of time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This resource is part of a toolkit created by the Trust in Archives Initiative. © 2026. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Version 1.0 – April 2026.