New RSL Web Standard and Collective Rights Organization Automate Content Licensing for the AI-First Internet and Enable Fair Compensation for Millions of Publishers and Creators
Reddit, People Inc., Yahoo, Internet Brands, Ziff Davis, Fastly, Quora, O’Reilly Media, and Medium are among the first to support the new Really Simple Licensing (RSL) Standard, available to any website for free today, to define licensing, usage, and compensation terms for AI crawlers and agents.
San Francisco, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Leading internet publishers and technology companies, including Reddit, Yahoo, People Inc., Internet Brands, Ziff Davis, Fastly, Quora, O’Reilly Media, and Medium, today announced their support for the launch of the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) Standard licensing protocol and the nonprofit RSL Collective rights organization. Through the new RSL Standard, the RSL Collective will provide fair, standardized compensation for publishers and creators, and simple, automated licensing for AI and technology companies.
RSL is an open, decentralized protocol, based on the widely adopted RSS (Really Simple Syndication) standard, that scales to millions of websites and can be applied to any digital content, including web pages, books, videos, and datasets.
“RSS was critical to the Internet’s evolution as an information ecosystem, giving early online publishers a simple, open standard to syndicate their content and reach audiences at Internet scale. That spirit of openness is what helped the web thrive,” said Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media. “But today, as AI systems absorb and repurpose that same content without permission or compensation, the rules need to evolve. RSL builds directly on the legacy of RSS, providing the missing licensing layer for the AI-first Internet. It ensures that the creators and publishers who fuel AI innovation are not just part of the conversation but fairly compensated for the value they create.”
From robots.txt to RSL: The content licensing infrastructure layer for the AI-First Internet
As the web’s economic foundation is being undermined by AI crawlers and agents, the RSL Standard goes beyond the simple yes/no blocking of the robots.txt protocol to define a new licensing infrastructure layer for the web, enabling publishers to add machine-readable licensing and royalty terms to their robots.txt files that specify how AI applications and agents must compensate them for using their content.
RSL supports a range of licensing, usage and royalty models, including free, attribution, subscription, pay-per-crawl (publishers get compensated every time an AI application crawls their content) and pay-per-inference (publishers get compensated every time an AI application uses their content to generate a response). Any online publisher can start using the RSL Standard today to define licensing and compensation terms for their content.
The direction and evolution of the RSL Standard is led by the RSL Technical Steering Committee (TSC) with representatives from leading publishing and technology companies, including Eckart Walther (RSL Collective, co-author RSS), RV Guha (co-author RSS, Schema.org, NLWeb), Tim O’Reilly (O’Reilly Media), Stephane Koenig (Yahoo), and Simon Wistow (Fastly).
The RSL Collective: A unified voice for millions of publishers and creators to negotiate fair compensation from AI companies
Collective licensing bodies like ASCAP and BMI have long enabled music creators to receive fair compensation by pooling rights into a single, indispensable offering. With the RSL Standard as the technology unlock, the Internet industry now has the infrastructure layer it needs to build and apply the same collective licensing model to its ecosystem—establishing fair market prices and strengthening negotiation leverage for all publishers.
The new nonprofit RSL Collective, launching today, provides collective licensing services through the RSL Standard for Internet publishers and creators. Joining the RSL Collective is free and non-exclusive. By adding their voice to the RSL Collective, creators and publishers help strengthen the open web’s collective leverage to secure fair recognition and compensation. To learn more or join the RSL Collective, visit: rslcollective.org.
How RSL Works
Key capabilities of RSL include:
- A common, extensible vocabulary that lets online publishers define licensing and compensation terms, including free, attribution, pay-per-crawl, and pay-per-inference compensation.
- An open protocol to automate content licensing and create internet-scale licensing ecosystems between content owners and AI companies.
- Creating standardized, public catalogs of licensable content and datasets through RSS and Schema.org metadata.
- An open protocol for encrypting digital assets to securely license nonpublic, proprietary content, including paywalled articles, books, videos, and training datasets.
- Support for collective licensing through the nonprofit RSL Collective rights organization or any other RSL-compatible licensing server.
Support for RSL
The RSL Collective and RSL Standard are supported by
Reddit, People Inc., Yahoo, Internet Brands, Ziff Davis, wikiHow, O’Reilly Media, Medium, The Daily Beast, Miso.AI, Raptive, Evolve Media, Ranker, Inspired Taste, Travel Lemming, and CelebrityNetWorth.
Additionally, the following companies support the RSL Standard
Fastly, Quora, and ADWEEK.
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About the RSL Standard
The Really Simple Licensing (RSL) Standard is an open, collaborative initiative dedicated to defining standardized, machine-readable building blocks for expressing content licensing and compensation rules for how content is accessed and processed for Artificial Intelligence (AI) model development, deployment, and use. The direction and evolution of the RSL Standard is guided by the RSL Technical Steering Committee (TSC).
To learn more about the RSL Standard or get involved, visit https://rslstand.org.
About the RSL Collective
The RSL Collective is a nonprofit collective rights organization and technology platform, supported by leading Internet companies, with a mission to protect the value of human creativity online by leveraging the RSL Standard to ensure that the millions of online creators and publishers are fairly compensated when AI companies use their work.
The RSL Collective is led by Doug Leeds, former CEO IAC Publishing, Ask.com, and Eckart Walther, former CEO Cardspring, product executive at Uber, Twitter, Yahoo, and co-creator of the RSS standard.
To learn more about the RSL Collective or join for free, visit https://rslcollective.org.
Media Contact:
Kathryn Kelly,
Kelly Communications
kathryn@kellycommunications.org
Support Quotes:
“The RSL Standard gives publishers and platforms a clear, scalable way to set licensing terms in the AI era,” said Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit. “The RSL Collective offers a path to do it together. Reddit supports both as important steps toward protecting the open web and the communities that make it thrive.”
People Inc.
“World class digital creators are needed to power the AI systems of the future; they are essential to the success of the AI era and they must be fairly compensated,” said Neil Vogel, CEO People Inc. “RSL moves the industry forward - evolving from simply blocking unauthorized crawlers, to setting licensing terms for all AI use cases, at global web scale.”
Yahoo
“As one of the internet’s most trusted brands, Yahoo understands the value of high-quality content. We are looking forward to helping the RSL Collective and all participants shape and implement the RSL Standard—an important component of the future content ecosystem,” said Matt Sanchez, Chief Operating Officer at Yahoo. “It gives us a common language, a shared standard, and a path forward that ensures quality is rewarded, access is protected, and fairness scales with innovation.”
Internet Brands
“Internet Brands is an enthusiastic supporter of the founding of the RSL Collective and RSL Standard. RSL provides the first scalable framework to enable publishers and internet companies of all sizes to make their content available for AI experiences while being fairly compensated,” said Kevin Hayes, Chief Product Officer of Internet Brands. “This will be critical to enabling digital innovators to continue investing in high-quality content and experiences to serve digital audiences.”
Ziff Davis
“Ziff Davis strongly supports RSL’s efforts at ensuring that copyright holders receive fair compensation for their intellectual property,” said Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis. “By working together through the shared RSL Standard, we can protect the value of trusted content, and ensure it continues to benefit consumers, creators, and innovators.”
Fastly
“The launch of the RSL Standard is a timely and necessary response to the shifting economics of the web,” said Simon Wistow, Co-founder and VP of Strategic Initiatives of Fastly. “By making it easy for publishers to define and enforce licensing terms, RSL lays the foundation for a healthy content ecosystem - one where innovation and investment in original work are rewarded, and where collaboration between publishers and AI companies becomes frictionless and mutually beneficial.”
Quora
"Publishers have a vital role to play in the future of the internet and in AI's growth," said Ricky Arai-Lopez, Head of Product, Quora. "Quora is proud to support the RSL Standard, which helps publishers set terms that work for them, serving as an important step towards a sustainable path for both industries to create mutual value and thrive together."
wikiHow
"wikiHow is incredibly excited about the RSL Collective and RSL Standard. We believe it's time for AI companies and publishers to collaborate, ensuring fair compensation for the invaluable content fueling AI experiences," said Elizabeth Douglas, CEO of wikiHow. "Licensing through RSL isn't just about business; it's about guaranteeing the continued creation of helpful, current content and ensuring AI remains a force for good. A fair model is essential for wikiHow to keep investing in the high-quality, trustworthy instructional content that empowers millions worldwide."
Medium
“If AI is trained on our writers’ work, then it needs to pay for that work”, said Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium. “Right now, AI runs on stolen content. Adopting this RSL Standard is how we force those AI companies to either pay for what they use, stop using it, or shut down.”
The Daily Beast
“The Daily Beast is built on fearless reporting and cultural insight that matters,” said Keith Bonnici, President & COO of The Daily Beast. “The RSL Collective is working to ensure that when AI systems draw on our work, the value we create is recognized. This is not only about protecting our business, it’s about protecting the future of independent, hard-hitting journalism online.”
Raptive
“Independent publishers and creators are the heart of the open web. The RSL Standard and Collective are putting their interests first and giving these small business owners real leverage in a fast-changing digital economy,” said Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer of Raptive. “That's why Raptive supports this initiative. By joining together around the RSL Standard and Collective, we can ensure independent publishers and creators thrive. I encourage others to stand with us.”
Evolve Media
“AI companies have been building their businesses on the backs of publishers without permission or compensation,” said Aaron Broder, founder and CEO of Evolve Media. “RSL offers a tangible and scalable way to change that. It provides a clear framework for how content can be used. It’s time to return control and value to the companies that create the content AI depends on.”
Ranker
“Ranker is built on the power of millions of human votes that create unique insights into culture and taste," said Clark Benson, CEO of Ranker. "The RSL Standard and Collective protect that content from being taken without permission and ensure it is fairly valued when used by AI. That keeps the human voice at the center of the Internet’s future.”
Inspired Taste
“For the open web to be sustainable, creators need to know that the work we pour into our site is valued and compensated fairly. Independent publishers and creators drive information and knowledge forward. Without fair compensation, in the form of agreements or click traffic, the open web will cease to exist,” said Adam and Joanne Gallagher, Co-Founders, Inspired Taste. “AI companies are exploiting our content in ways that force us to compete against our own original work for traffic. The RSL Standard gives creators like us a collective voice and framework to benefit when our content is used by AI companies. Standing together through the Collective is a great step towards protecting our livelihoods and demanding the respect we deserve.”
Travel Lemming
"AI companies should remember they need web creators and publishers more than we need them. We built the open web. AI just feeds off our work,” said Nate Hake, Founder & CEO of Travel Lemming. “AI cannot visit a place, taste a recipe, or play a game. AI cannot experience the world. Without fresh, high-quality human-created content, AI applications degrade. We know our worth as creators. And we're ready to stand together and demand fair compensation.”
CelebrityNetWorth
“CelebrityNetWorth has spent nearly two decades building one of the most trusted financial datasets on the internet,” said Brian Warner, Director, Brand and Digital Products at CelebrityNetWorth. “AI companies rely on that work every day, often without attribution or compensation. RSL represents a path forward where publishers and AI companies can work together under a fair, transparent licensing model that sustains great content for the long term.”
Kathryn Kelly Kelly Communications kathryn@kellycommunications.org
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