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LicenseBot: Automated License Detection & Compliance API

A REST API that ingests arXiv paper URLs, GitHub repo links, or raw code snippets and returns structured license metadata (license type, restrictions, attribution requirements, commercial use allowance, derivative work rules) in <2 seconds. Integrates directly into researcher workflows via browser extension, IDE plugins, or institutional API keys. Backs data with automated GitHub/arXiv scraping, manual legal review for ambiguous cases, and a crowdsourced correction system.

SAAS

25 weeks • 70% confidence

Value Proposition

Eliminates 30+ minutes of manual license hunting per paper/repo by providing instant, legally-reviewed answers. Reduces legal risk through standardized interpretation and institutional liability coverage. Works offline via downloadable license database; no vendor lock-in.

Target Audience

AI/ML research labs, academic institutions (purchasing via site licenses), corporate R&D teams evaluating open-source dependencies, compliance officers at tech companies

Key Features

  • Real-time license extraction from arXiv metadata, GitHub API, and paper PDFs
  • Structured output (JSON) with specific restrictions: commercial use, modification, redistribution, attribution format
  • Batch API for scanning 100+ repos at once
  • And more, with full implementation detail...

Tech Stack

Python (FastAPI/Flask) arXiv API + GitHub API PostgreSQL + Redis (caching) AWS Lambda + RDS + CloudFront
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Original Problem

Researchers and developers struggle to understand and navigate open-source licensing restrictions on academic papers and code

Academics, AI researchers, and developers need to quickly determine what they can legally do with papers and code from arXiv, but licensing information is often unclear, scattered, or missing entirely. Current solutions fail because there's no centralized, standardized way to check licenses across repositories, leading to legal uncertainty and wasted time on compliance research.

Score: 17.5%