Territory Grounder

Territory Grounder · Policy

Territory Grounder Mission and Use Policy

Version 1.0, 3 November 2026.

Issued by Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Leiden, the Netherlands, who alone owns and runs Territory Grounder. It binds him in his work on Territory Grounder and any successor, including any company later formed to carry on Territory Grounder.

Signed by Kyriakos Papadopoulos, as a public commitment.

Why I wrote this

I built a thing that acts on infrastructure by itself. An agent that keeps systems running does not know what those systems are for. Territory Grounder shares this line with MeshSat, the other project I work on, and I decided it while I could still decide.

Three refusals shape it.

I will not pretend to control what I have given away. The code is free to everyone, and that cannot be undone, so I do not claim a reach I do not have.

I will not hold a key I have not told you about. Territory Grounder runs inside your own trust boundary, with no service of mine in between and nothing that phones home. I have built no kill switch and will not, because a key like that is a means of harm, and it would put a decision about someone else’s estate in a supplier’s hands.

I will not put my work into the means of fighting, however good the cause. I do not trust myself to be the exception.

What I keep is what is still in my hands: my work, my name, and whom I work with and take money from. This policy is how I keep it.

1. Mission

Territory Grounder exists to let infrastructure be run safely by an agent that is not allowed to act on a belief it has not checked.

It is built for the people who keep systems up when nobody is awake to do it: operators of sovereign, regulated and air-gapped estates, public services, hospitals, utilities, research and critical infrastructure.

2. Neutrality

Territory Grounder serves the people who depend on the systems it keeps running, not war aims. It can keep civilian infrastructure alive on any side of a conflict, and never the means of fighting it.

3. What control I keep, and what I do not

Territory Grounder is built to run without me. It is self-hosted, runs inside the adopter’s own trust boundary, has no service of mine in between, and does not contact me.

I have built no kill switch, and I will not. I will not ship an update that disables, limits or tracks a deployment because of who runs it.

Once Territory Grounder runs on your systems I have no say in how it is used. The control I keep is the choice of whom I work with, before anything is signed. This policy is how I use it.

4. The policy

Territory Grounder will not work with any organisation that develops, produces, integrates or operates weapon systems, whatever the project.

Territory Grounder will not provide anything for use in a weapon system, or in the infrastructure that runs one, whoever operates it.

An organisation is the company I would deal with, together with its group, or the public body I would deal with. The end customer counts too: an organisation excluded under this section is excluded whether it comes to me directly or through any reseller, integrator or intermediary. A company whose group develops, produces, integrates or operates weapon systems is excluded, even where the part I would deal with does not. “Integrates” means integrating weapon systems themselves, not running ordinary infrastructure for an organisation. A municipality, a safety region, a fire service, a hospital or a civil protection agency is judged on what it does itself, not on the state it belongs to. A public university or public research institute is judged on the unit I would deal with, provided that unit does no weapon-system work.

“Provide” and “work with” mean all of the following:

This policy covers what Territory Grounder provides and with whom it works. It does not cover the suppliers I buy from. It is about organisations: I do not screen individuals who download the code, but nothing in this policy allows work I know is for a weapon system.

It is not a judgement on any particular organisation or on the cause it serves. It is a statement about what Territory Grounder is and is not.

5. Definitions

A weapon system is “any kind of system which includes amongst its functions the ability to purposefully do harm to human beings.” This includes weapons platforms, munitions, targeting and fire control, strike and loitering drones, reconnaissance or sensor networks that feed targeting, and any command, control or communications system whose purpose is to direct any of these. It includes weapons intended to injure without killing, and surveillance used to harm people. A system whose only function is to disable uncrewed machines, such as a counter-drone interceptor, is not a weapon system under this definition unless it is also meant to harm people.

The policy has two tests. The first is who I work with: an organisation that develops, produces, integrates or operates weapon systems is excluded, however civilian a particular project is. Armed forces, police forces, coast guards and border agencies operate weapons, and are excluded as organisations. The second is what a deployment does: Territory Grounder is not provided for use in a weapon system, or in the infrastructure that runs one, whoever operates it. The system is the specific estate Territory Grounder would run in.

Where an estate’s functions include both, this policy applies. I do not resolve ambiguity in my own commercial favour. I may ask a customer to state the purpose of an estate. In a case this text does not settle, I decide in writing, and the reasons are kept.

Inside the mission, by way of example: public services; hospitals and health care; utilities, energy, water and telecommunications; research and education; humanitarian, civil protection and emergency services; businesses whose estate serves none of the excluded purposes.

6. What this policy cannot do, and does not pretend to

Territory Grounder’s code is open under the Apache License 2.0. Anyone may use it for any purpose, and this policy does not change that. A use restriction in the licence would make it no longer open source, and I would rather keep it open and hold this line myself. I do not add technical enforcement either, for the reasons in section 3.

What I withhold is myself: my work, my support, my name and my endorsement. No organisation excluded under section 4 may present itself as a Territory Grounder partner, customer or integrator, or use the Territory Grounder name or marks to suggest I endorse it.

7. How it is applied

Every business agreement, licence, partnership and funding application is checked against this policy before it is signed. Where an engagement is declined under this policy, the organisation is told so and told why.

Funding programmes run by an organisation excluded under section 4, such as a ministry of defence or a military alliance, are declined. Other public programmes, including EU instruments with a defence or security label, are permitted only where the deliverable falls inside the mission as defined in section 5.

Questions about this policy, and reports of a breach, go to the project’s issue tracker, github.com/territory-grounder/grounder/issues.

8. Change of control and existing users

If a customer is, or becomes, an organisation excluded under section 4, or uses Territory Grounder for a weapon system, support and any service I provide end, with a pro-rata refund of fees paid in advance. Nothing is done remotely to their installation.

If Territory Grounder itself changes hands, this policy binds the successor, as stated at the top of this policy, and I intend to place it in the articles of association of any company formed to carry on Territory Grounder.

9. How it is changed

This policy is versioned. A change is published with its reasons and the date, and every previous version remains available at its own address. Any change that admits an organisation or a deployment this version excludes, or that weakens a commitment in section 3, is a loosening. If I am no longer involved in Territory Grounder, the policy can be tightened but not loosened. The policy will not be loosened quietly, for a particular deal, or under commercial pressure. A change that is not made in the open is not a change to this policy; it is a breach of it.

10. Lineage

This policy is the MeshSat Mission and Use Policy (https://meshsat.net/policy/), adapted for a project I own alone. Its test is modelled on the harm clause of the Reticulum License: “The Software shall not be used in any kind of system which includes amongst its functions the ability to purposefully do harm to human beings.” I take the principle behind that clause as my own.

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