kiso.to

Terms of Use & License

Last updated · 15 June 2026

kiso.to is offered freely, as a gift. It was made for the love of the subject and given to the open web in the same spirit as the free and open-source projects that make the internet worth visiting. You are warmly welcome to read it, learn from it, share it, and build on it. All that's asked in return is that you keep the gift a gift — pass it on freely, credit where it came from, and never lock it away or sell it as your own.

The license

Unless noted otherwise, all original content on kiso.to — the entries, definitions, curation, and translations — is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Read the full CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

You are free to

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, translate, and build upon the material.

As long as you

  • Give credit. Attribute the work to kiso.to with a link back, and indicate if you made changes. Do so in a reasonable way, but not in any way that suggests kiso.to endorses you.
  • Keep it non-commercial. You may not use the material for commercial purposes — that includes selling it, putting it behind a paywall, or building a paid product around it. This is the line that keeps a pirated, paid copy off the table.
  • Share alike. If you remix or build upon the material, you must distribute your version under this same license — so the gift stays free for the next person too.
  • Add no extra locks. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures (such as DRM) that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Please preserve the gift

None of the above is here to be litigious. It's here because something freely given is easy to quietly take, repackage, and sell — and that breaks the trust that makes free things possible at all. If kiso.to helped you, the kindest thing you can do is leave it free for the next person, send people to the source, and create rather than copy. Take the inspiration; leave the gift intact.

What this covers

This license covers the original writing and curation on kiso.to. It does not cover third-party material we link to or reference (such as the Wikipedia articles behind each "delve deeper" link), which remains the property of its owners under its own terms. The kiso.to name, logo, the underlying software, and any paid membership features (such as handcrafted illustrations, advanced visualization modes, and quizzes) are not granted under this license.

No warranty

kiso.to is provided "as is," for general interest and education. While it's made with care, no guarantee is offered as to accuracy or completeness, and it shouldn't be relied upon as authoritative or professional advice. Use it at your own discretion.

Premium features & membership

Everything above — the entire current catalog, and the Browse, Reels, and Search tools you use to explore it — is free, and because a Creative Commons license can't be revoked, it always will be. Separately, kiso.to may offer optional paid membership features built on top of the free site, such as handcrafted illustrations, advanced visualization modes, and quizzes. These are new, additional works: they are not part of the free catalog, they are not under the license above, and they have their own terms. (The non-commercial condition above limits what others may do with the free catalog — it doesn't stop kiso.to from offering its own separate premium work.)

Read the membership terms

Questions, attribution, or takedowns

Want to use kiso.to commercially, unsure how to credit it, or need to report content that should be taken down? Get in touch and we'll sort it out.