License Grant Scope and Derivative Works

What it is

DeepSeek grants you a free, non-transferable, revocable license to use, modify, and distribute the model for research or commercial purposes, subject to the conditions set out in the license.

Why it matters (compliance & governance perspective)

The license is explicitly revocable, meaning DeepSeek retains the right to terminate the license grant, which creates ongoing dependency on DeepSeek's continued authorization for any organization that has built commercial products on the model.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

The revocable nature of the license grant means that organizations and developers who build products on DeepSeek-R1 do not hold an irrevocable right to continue using the model; the license can be terminated, which is an operational risk for long-term commercial deployments.

Institutional analysis (Compliance & governance intelligence)

1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The license grant and its revocability are matters of contract and intellectual property law. No specific consumer data protection regulation directly governs this provision, though the revocability of a license used in a consumer-facing product could have downstream implications for service continuity obligations under consumer protection laws in various jurisdictions. 2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The revocability of the license introduces continuity risk for commercial deployments. Unlike irrevocable open-source licenses such as Apache 2.0 or MIT, a revocable license means that the licensor can withdraw permissions, potentially requiring organizations to remove the model from production systems. The conditions under which the license can be revoked are not fully specified in the available text, which creates additional uncertainty. 3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: In the EU, service continuity obligations under consumer protection law and the Digital Services Act may create regulatory exposure if a service built on DeepSeek-R1 is suddenly withdrawn due to license revocation. In the U.S., business interruption and contractual continuity issues would be governed by state contract law. 4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Enterprises building commercial products on DeepSeek-R1 should factor the revocability of the license into their business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Vendor agreements for downstream services built on the model should include provisions addressing what happens in the event of license revocation. The non-sublicensable and non-transferable nature of the license also means that organizations cannot pass the license to subsidiaries or successors without re-evaluation. 5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should assess whether the revocable nature of the license creates material risk disclosure obligations in financial filings, investor communications, or regulatory submissions for organizations where DeepSeek-R1 is a material component of commercial products. Business continuity plans should include a model substitution pathway in the event of license revocation.

Provision details

Other risks in this policy

• Anti-Distillation Clause high
• Commercial Use Threshold (100M MAU) medium
• Attribution and Notice Requirements low
• Prohibition on Misrepresentation of Origin low
• Acceptable Use Policy and Prohibited Conduct high
• Disclaimer of Warranties medium

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