Licenses: Configuration
The License configuration is the most consequential part of your Supertab Connect setup — it defines exactly what AI systems are and aren't allowed to do with your content. Every license has three tabs: Permits, Prohibits, and Optional. This article covers each one.
Permits: what you're allowing
Permitted Uses
This is the core of your license. You're choosing from six use types, and it's worth understanding what each one actually means:
| Use type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Any automated processing | The broadest possible permission. If selected, any automated system can do anything with your content. Only use this if you're running a very open policy. |
| Any use by AI systems | Similar in scope but specifically scoped to AI — covers training, indexing, and generative use, all of it. |
| Training or fine-tuning AI models | The big one most publishers have strong opinions about. Selecting this means AI companies can use your content to train their models. Leave it unselected if you want to prohibit training. |
| Search, excluding AI-generated summaries | Traditional search indexing. Permits Googlebot-style crawling for search results, but explicitly excludes using your content to generate AI summaries or answers. This option has a padlock icon — it's a locked option, meaning it's always available to compliant search crawlers regardless of your other settings. |
| Input for generative AI answers | Permits your content to be used as context when an AI system generates an answer to a user's question — think RAG-style retrieval, AI search features, or chatbot knowledge bases. |
| Inclusion in AI system's internal index or retrieval database | Permits indexing your content into an AI company's internal vector store or retrieval system, which is often a precursor to generative use. |
Permitted Users
Below Permitted Uses, Permitted Users lets you restrict which types of organisations can benefit from this license. You can permit Commercial, Non-commercial, Education, Government, and Personal use independently. Selecting all five means any type of organisation qualifies.
Geo
Leave blank for a global license, or select specific countries to restrict this license to particular territories — useful if your content rights are region-specific.
Prohibits: what you're explicitly blocking
The Prohibits tab mirrors the Permits tab — same structure, same use-type and user-type options — but these are the uses you're explicitly blocking. Anything selected here is explicitly prohibited in your license XML, meaning compliant crawlers must not perform those uses even if they could technically access your content.
You don't need to prohibit everything you haven't permitted — absence of permission is already a restriction. But explicitly prohibiting something makes your position unambiguous and machine-readable. If you want to be crystal clear that AI training is off the table, select it here even if you haven't permitted it.
A common starting configuration: permit Search on the Permits tab, and explicitly prohibit Training or fine-tuning AI models on the Prohibits tab. This sends a clear signal to any compliant crawler.
Optional: the legal layer
The Optional tab covers the legal layer of your license — warranties, disclaimers, attestation, and contact information. These are all checked by default, for good reason.
- License Warranties — statements you're making about the content covered by this license: that you own or control the rights you're granting, that the content doesn't infringe third-party IP, that you've obtained consents for any personal data, and that the content is free from malicious code. All five are checked by default. Review these carefully — if any don't apply to your situation (for example, if you aggregate content from third parties and can't fully warrant ownership), uncheck the relevant ones.
- License Disclaimers — standard protections for you as the publisher: asset is provided as-is, no express or implied warranties, no liability for damages, and no indemnification. These are all checked by default and you'd typically leave them as-is.
- License Attestation — a single checkbox that formally affirms you own, administer, or are authorised to assert the rights described in this license, and that appropriate documentation is on file. Check this only when it's true — it's a meaningful statement, not a formality.
- Contact — your contact email for licensing enquiries. This is separate from the Copyright & Terms contact in Section Settings, since different licenses can have different licensing contacts if needed.
- License Proof — an optional field for a URL that provides verifiable proof of your rights: a blockchain transaction, a rights registry entry, or a legal document URL. Most publishers can leave this blank initially; it's available for situations where you want to provide an auditable evidence trail.
Multiple licenses per section
You can attach more than one license to a single section. Use + Add License at the bottom of the license card to add another — for example, a free tier that permits search only, and a paid tier that permits broader AI use under different terms.
Once you're happy with your configuration, save your changes using the Save button in the Preview & Publish panel on the right — that's what pushes your new license version live.