LICENSING.md

# Licensing — marvy-1-14B

marvy-1-14B uses a **layered (dual) license** that reflects what is built on top
of an upstream open model versus what MainStack authored.

| Component | License | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| **Model weights** (`*.safetensors`, GGUF quants, LoRA adapter) | **Apache-2.0** | The fine-tuned weights. These are a derivative of Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct (Apache-2.0); per that license they remain Apache-2.0 and free to use, modify, and redistribute. |
| **MainStack original contributions** | **CC-BY-4.0** | The model cards, documentation (`USAGE.md`, `VALIDATION.md`, benchmark), the benchmark charts, the curated training-data methodology, and the pipeline framing authored by MainStack. |

## What this means in practice

### You may (under Apache-2.0, for the weights)
- Use marvy-1-14B commercially, privately, or in research.
- Fine-tune, distill, quantize, merge, or otherwise build on the weights.
- Redistribute the weights, including modified versions.

…provided you **retain the `NOTICE` file** in derivatives and redistributions
(Apache-2.0 §4(d) — this is mandatory and carries the attribution request).

### You must (under CC-BY-4.0, for our contributions)
If you reuse MainStack's **documentation, model cards, benchmark, or charts** —
e.g. copying our eval methodology, reproducing our charts, or lifting card text
into your own model — you must give **attribution**: credit "MainStack" and link
to https://huggingface.co/MainStack/marvy-1-14B. This is a binding condition of
CC-BY-4.0, not just a request.

### We ask (attribution for the model)
If you use marvy-1-14B **as a baseline, a starting point for your own fine-tune,
a distillation source, or an evaluation comparison**, please credit MainStack
and cite the entry in the model card. See `NOTICE` and the card's Citation
section.

## Why the weights can't be more restricted

Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct is released under Apache-2.0, which grants every recipient
an irrevocable, royalty-free right to use and redistribute. A fine-tune cannot
revoke those rights on the resulting weights. MainStack's protection therefore
lives where it legally can: (1) the CC-BY-4.0 license on our **own** authored
materials, and (2) the Apache-2.0 **NOTICE** that must travel with the weights.

## Files
- `LICENSE` — Apache-2.0 (governs the weights; inherited from the base model).
- `LICENSE-CC-BY-4.0` — CC-BY-4.0 (governs MainStack's documentation and other
  original contributions).
- `NOTICE` — required attribution notices (retain in derivatives).
- `CITATION.cff` — citation metadata.