> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lightdrift.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rights answers

> How to read the rights object, and what Lightdrift does and does not promise.

Every result Lightdrift returns carries a `rights` object. The goal is simple: your agent should never have to guess what it's allowed to do with an image.

## The posture

Lightdrift reports rights **as declared by the source**. We collect the license and permission information a source publishes alongside each image and normalize it into one machine-readable shape. We do not verify declarations or guarantee legal clearance — the same posture as an image search engine, made explicit and structured.

That means:

* **Copyright** — the license shown is what the source declared. For well-governed sources (CC0, Creative Commons, US-government public domain) declarations are reliable in practice, but they remain declarations.
* **Beyond copyright** — a copyright license never covers everything. People in a photo have likeness rights; logos have trademark rights; some buildings and artworks have their own restrictions. Clearing those is on you and your users.

Every rights object carries this posture verbatim in its `basis` field, so an agent reading a single result has the full context.

## The fields

| Field                  | What it tells you                                                                      |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `license`              | Normalized license identifier: `cc0`, `cc-by-4.0`, `public-domain-us-gov`, …           |
| `license_url`          | Canonical URL of the license text.                                                     |
| `as_declared_by`       | The source whose declaration this answer is based on.                                  |
| `commercial`           | Whether commercial use is permitted. `null` = the declaration doesn't say.             |
| `derivatives`          | Whether derivative works are permitted.                                                |
| `share_alike`          | Whether derivatives must carry the same license.                                       |
| `attribution_required` | Whether attribution is required.                                                       |
| `attribution`          | A ready-to-use attribution string (title, author, source, license).                    |
| `ai_training`          | The source's declared stance on AI-training use, when stated.                          |
| `delivery`             | `host` — served from Lightdrift storage. `link` — we link to the rights holder's copy. |
| `provenance`           | Where the asset and its declaration were collected.                                    |
| `note`                 | Source-specific caveats.                                                               |
| `basis`                | The posture statement above, verbatim.                                                 |

## A practical reading order for agents

1. Check `license` against what the task needs (`commercial`, `derivatives`).
2. If `attribution_required` is `true`, carry `attribution` through to the final output.
3. Treat `null` permission flags as "the source didn't say," not as "no."
4. If the subject is a person, logo, or artwork, remember those rights are separate from the copyright license.