{"id":"Gemma-Terms-of-Use","title":"Gemma Terms of Use","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://ai.google.dev/gemma/terms","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The terms under which a family of open model weights is released, last modified on April 1, 2026. They grant use, reproduction, modification, distribution, performance and display, including as a hosted service, on the condition that a prohibited use policy is carried into every downstream agreement, that recipients get a copy of the terms and a named notice file, and that changed files say so. The record follows the compatibility shape: relicensing is permitted and carries dalicc:compliantLicense, because the terms allow different terms for your own modifications provided they do not conflict.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"dct:title","description":"File name, record identifier and IRI local name agree. The terms have no SPDX identifier, so no spdx:licenseId triple is written. dct:title is the name of the document; the model-hub tag and the short form are in dct:alternative.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:target","description":"dcmitype:Dataset and dcmitype:Software. The licensed material is defined as \"the set of machine learning language models, trained model weights and parameters identified in the Appendix, regardless of the source that you obtained it from\": weights and parameters are data and the models are software. The appendix lists more than twenty releases, all under the same terms.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Clause 2.2 reads \"You may use, reproduce, modify, Distribute, perform or display any of the Gemma Services only in accordance with the terms of this Agreement\", and clause 3.1 lets you \"reproduce or Distribute copies of Gemma or Model Derivatives\" on four conditions. That gives odrl:reproduce, odrl:modify, odrl:distribute, odrl:present, odrl:display, odrl:derive, cc:DerivativeWorks and dalicc:ModifiedWorks. cc:CommercialUse is permitted because the terms name no limit of purpose beyond the policy and the law. dalicc:networkUseTrigger carries the hosted service, which the definition of Distribution covers: \"including by providing or making Gemma or its functionality available as a hosted service via API, web access, or any other electronic or remote means\". Model Derivatives are defined to include distillation and synthetic-data training, so dalicc:useForModelTraining is permitted. dalicc:ChangeLicense is permitted and carries dalicc:compliantLicense, from \"may provide additional or different terms and conditions for use, reproduction, or Distribution of your modifications\" and \"Any additional or different terms and conditions you impose must not conflict with the terms of this Agreement.\"","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"One prohibition, dalicc:promote, from clause 4.2: \"Nothing in this Agreement grants you any rights to use Google's trademarks, trade names, logos or to otherwise suggest endorsement or misrepresent the relationship between you and Google.\" There is no patent grant in the text and no patent retaliation clause, so neither is written. The use restrictions of clause 3.2 are not modelled as prohibitions; see the rubric 8 finding.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"Four duties on each of odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive, and two of them on dalicc:networkUseTrigger. cc:Notice comes from \"You must provide all third party recipients of Gemma or Model Derivatives a copy of this Agreement.\" dalicc:includeNoticeFile and dalicc:addStatement come from \"All Distributions (other than through a Hosted Service) must be accompanied by a \"Notice\" text file that contains the following notice: \"Gemma is provided under and subject to the Gemma Terms of Use found at ai.google.dev/gemma/terms\"\", and dalicc:addStatement also carries the duty to include the use restrictions as an enforceable provision in any downstream agreement. dalicc:modificationNotice comes from \"You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you modified the files.\" Only cc:Notice and dalicc:addStatement hang on the hosting trigger, because the terms say in terms that the notice file is not required for a hosted service. cc:Attribution is not written: the terms have no clause asking you to retain the existing copyright or attribution notices.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer","description":"Clause 4.3 goes to dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and clause 4.4 to dalicc:LiabilityLimitation, each whole and verbatim. dalicc:additionalClauses carries the acceptance sentence, the definitions, the eligibility and use clauses, the distribution conditions, the use restrictions, the generated output clause, the updates and trademark clauses, the term and governing law clauses, the severability, entire agreement and no waiver clauses, and one literal that quotes the incorporation clause of the prohibited use policy and gives its address. The document also carries an appendix listing the releases the terms apply to, which is not a clause and is not quoted. No long dash appears in the agreement; the eight in the retrieved page are in the site navigation around it.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"minor","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"cc:jurisdiction is dalicc:worldwide: the terms name no territory for the grant. dalicc:governingLaw names California, from \"This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to choice of law principles.\" dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual, because the term runs from acceptance until terminated, and dalicc:terminatesOnBreach is true from \"Google may terminate this Agreement if you are in breach of any term of this Agreement.\" No cure period is given.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:fieldOfUseRestriction","description":"The use restrictions are a separate document incorporated by reference: \"You must not use any of the Gemma Services: for the restricted uses set forth in the Gemma Prohibited Use Policy at ai.google.dev/gemma/prohibited_use_policy (\"Prohibited Use Policy\"), which is hereby incorporated by reference into this Agreement; or in violation of applicable laws and regulations.\" dalicc:fieldOfUseRestriction names the field in a short literal, but there is no term for a policy the licence pulls in by reference and whose content is not in the text. The incorporation clause and the address are quoted in one literal; the proposed term is dalicc:incorporatedUsePolicy, an annotation carrying the address.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The output clause has no term: \"Google claims no rights in Outputs you generate using Gemma. You and your users are solely responsible for Outputs and their subsequent uses.\" It is a statement about what the licensor does not claim, which is neither a permission nor a duty. Quoted; the proposed term is dalicc:outputRightsStatement, an annotation.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Two reserved powers have no term. \"To the maximum extent permitted by law, Google reserves the right to restrict (remotely or otherwise) usage of any of the Gemma Services that Google reasonably believes are in violation of this Agreement\", and \"Google may update Gemma from time to time.\" Both are quoted; the proposed term is dalicc:runtimeRestrictionReserved, an annotation for a licence whose licensor may switch off a non-compliant use or change the licensed material.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer against dg_default returned an empty conflict list. The record states no share-alike duty, so the dalicc:ChangeLicense permission raises no conflict; it carries dalicc:compliantLicense because the replacement terms must not conflict with these.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"Family: this record sits between the responsible-use group and the community licences of this family. Like the responsible-use group it carries its restrictions downstream through the recipient's own agreement, which is why dalicc:reciprocityScope and dalicc:compatibleLicenseTest are written; unlike that group it grants no patent licence and has no patent retaliation clause, its restrictions live in a separate policy rather than in an attachment, and it terminates on breach. Unlike the community licences it sets no user threshold and asks for no built-with line.","action":"none"}],"family":"Model licences","port_of":null,"variant_kind":null,"variant_of":null,"notes":"Modelled from the page the publisher serves the terms on; the retrieved copy carries the whole agreement inside the site navigation, and only the agreement was quoted. cc:legalcode and dct:source both point at that page, which is also the address the prescribed notice names. The page says the terms below apply to the releases in the appendix and that a newer release has terms of its own; this record models the document at the address the notice names, and a second reader should check whether the newer document needs a record of its own."}