# V. Subscription

### Part 5 — Subscription Model 

#### 5.1 Subscription Thesis and Nonprofit Compatibility

5.1.1 **Free-by-default baseline.** GCRI Guild membership is free by default. Free membership establishes baseline access to public-safe commons participation, learning pathways, and non-privileged contribution lanes, subject to handling, conduct, and lawful participation constraints.\
5.1.2 **Cost-recovery purpose.** Paid add-ons exist only for cost-recovery and capacity building: platform security and resilience, publication safety screening, verification throughput, controlled-room operations, accessibility supports, and replication infrastructure. Revenue may not be structured to create private benefit, influence purchase, or operational authority.\
5.1.3 **No pay-to-play governance.** Payment must never purchase governance influence. Subscriptions cannot buy votes, veto overrides, Council seats, release authority, reviewer priority, stage access, or any form of preferential governance treatment.\
5.1.4 **Perimeter compatibility.** Subscriptions and add-ons must remain compatible with the strict non-executing perimeter. No subscription tier may enable underwriting, placement, custody, settlement, market-making, procurement steering, or deal-room activity.\
5.1.5 **Transparency minima.** The platform must publish public-safe transparency minima: plan descriptions, price bands, scholarship/waiver volumes (aggregate), and sponsor category disclosures (public-safe), while protecting sensitive operational details under controlled handling.\
5.1.6 **Equity and global inclusion design.** Pricing and entitlements must be designed for global participation, including low-resource geographies, low-bandwidth access, and inclusive formats. Where fees would exclude public-interest participation, scholarship/waiver and sliding-scale pathways must be available.\
5.1.7 **Legal characterization and non-investment framing.** Fees are characterized as membership fees and/or cost-recovery service fees. Donations may be accepted where lawful, but no tier may be marketed as an investment, a financial return instrument, or a vehicle for preferential access to regulated outcomes.\
5.1.8 **Record-validity and enforceability.** Subscription terms, entitlements, and pricing are enforceable only when platform-recorded and version-pinned, with clear effective dates and supersession records.

***

#### 5.2 Subscription Types and Eligibility Classes

5.2.1 **Free (baseline).** Provides baseline membership status and access to public-safe commons participation, subject to PoC and handling prerequisites for any elevated lanes.\
5.2.2 **Individual Plus.** Optional individual add-ons for enhanced learning resources, expanded workspace tooling, or limited additional compute, without any governance privilege.\
5.2.3 **Professional.** Adds structured clinics, enhanced tooling, and increased support features designed for professionals participating in verification, replication, and publication hygiene—without altering PoC gates or handling constraints.\
5.2.4 **Research.** Adds replication environments, dataset tooling, benchmark harness access, and extended research clinic capacity, subject to strict data governance and handling rules.\
5.2.5 **Public-Sector.** Provides ethics-safe, procurement-neutral access designed for public officials and public institutions, including attribution-safe participation and constrained benefit design consistent with gift and inducement rules.\
5.2.6 **Student / Early-Career.** Discounted or subsidized access for early-career participants, with safeguarding constraints and role eligibility gates appropriate to risk and maturity.\
5.2.7 **Scholarship / Waiver.** Need-based and public-interest pathways that preserve full integrity and safety controls while reducing or eliminating cost barriers.\
5.2.8 **Sponsor-Supported Seats.** Seats funded by sponsors under strict firewall controls: no sponsor selection influence over governance outcomes, publication decisions, review lanes, or staffing of safety roles.\
5.2.9 **Host Institution Seats.** Institutional access packaged for Host Institutions to support lawful adoption and capacity building, without governance capture or preferential treatment in publication or verification outcomes.\
5.2.10 **Program Seats.** Time-boxed access tied to a specific program, clinic, campaign, or replication drive, with explicit scope, expiry, and deliverable expectations recorded by program record.\
5.2.11 **Alumni / Read-Only.** Post-service access posture preserving learning and audit visibility where appropriate, with no authority and survival obligations maintained.\
5.2.12 **Restricted Jurisdiction Variants.** Variants or limitations applied where sanctions/export controls or local law require constrained access, with reason-coded, record-valid enforcement.

***

#### 5.3 Entitlements Architecture (What Subscriptions Can and Cannot Change)

5.3.1 **Entitlement categories.** Entitlements may include access, compute, tooling, clinics, structured support, publication support services, and participation infrastructure—subject to invariants.\
5.3.2 **Baseline entitlements (Free).** Free entitlements include: open membership standing, public-safe access lanes, core onboarding and PoC0 access, ability to observe and participate in public-safe queues, and access to public-safe learning materials.\
5.3.3 **Add-on entitlements.** Paid tiers may extend: compute quotas, replication harness access, clinic capacity, structured publication support, and secure sandbox access—always subject to PoC/ILA and handling constraints.\
5.3.4 **Non-entitlements.** The following cannot be purchased: governance votes or eligibility, release authority, safety veto overrides, reviewer priority, stage access, roster prominence, procurement influence, publication acceptance, badges, or favorable outcomes.\
5.3.5 **Handling invariants.** Subscription never relaxes handling class requirements. Controlled and restricted content remains gated by handling posture, distribution logs, and safety rules regardless of payment.\
5.3.6 **PoC/ILA invariants.** Subscription never bypasses competence gates. Any lane requiring PoC or ILA completion remains locked until those requirements are met.\
5.3.7 **Jurisdiction activation invariants.** Subscription never creates local “presence,” chapters, or authority. Local operations remain prohibited absent activation and mandate evidence recorded.\
5.3.8 **Integrity holds override.** Safety holds, incident holds, and integrity investigations may suspend entitlements, access, or publication routes without refund liability beyond published refund policies.\
5.3.9 **Availability disclaimers.** The platform does not guarantee uptime, throughput, or capacity. Subscription entitlements are best-effort and may be constrained by safety posture, capacity limits, or lawful restrictions.\
5.3.10 **Expiry-by-default.** Purchased entitlements are time-boxed and expire by default unless renewed; privilege creep is prevented through automatic expiry and revalidation.

***

#### 5.4 Entitlements Matrix (Access, Tooling, Credits, Roles, Publishing)

5.4.1 **Workspace tiers by subscription and PoC.** Workspace access is determined by: handling class + PoC/ILA gates + role markers + subscription entitlements. Subscription may widen eligible lanes but cannot open lanes without competence and handling readiness.\
5.4.2 **Compute and utility credits.** NUCs and utility credits allotments are defined per tier with clear rate limits, rollover rules (if any), and anti-abuse controls. Credits are non-financial, non-transferable by default, and may be revoked for abuse.\
5.4.3 **Tooling access.** Tooling entitlements may include replication harnesses, secure sandboxes, benchmark suites, and controlled workspaces with audit logs, subject to lane risk.\
5.4.4 **Clinics and convenings.** Some tiers may include priority access to clinics, sprints, and demo days, but never preferential governance influence; safe-meeting scripts and handling elections apply to all.\
5.4.5 **Verification and review lanes.** Submission rights and access to review queues may be expanded by tier, but reviewer pool eligibility requires PoC thresholds, COI screening, and rotation discipline independent of payment.\
5.4.6 **Publication support entitlements.** Paid add-ons may provide method packaging assistance, translation integrity support, safety screening throughput, and documentation hygiene services, without guaranteeing acceptance or release.\
5.4.7 **Event participation and listing.** Subscription may enable participation in additional events or listing options, but default non-attribution remains; attribution is permissioned, scoped, and expiry-bound by record.\
5.4.8 **Directory and trust-surface settings.** Subscription may offer additional privacy controls or visibility features only where safety allows; no tier may force public attribution or roster disclosure as a default.\
5.4.9 **Support levels.** Community support is the baseline; structured support may be offered as an add-on, with non-guarantees and incident holds override.\
5.4.10 **Precedence rule.** If entitlements conflict: **handling class > safety/incident holds > PoC/ILA > subscription** governs.

***

#### 5.5 Scholarships, Waivers, Sliding Scale, and Accessibility Support

5.5.1 **Scholarship objectives.** Scholarships exist to protect global inclusion, public-interest participation, and capacity building, especially for low-resource contexts and critical public safety domains.\
5.5.2 **Eligibility and minimization.** Eligibility criteria must minimize required documentation and protect applicant privacy. Any documentation request must be proportionate, purpose-limited, and handled under appropriate confidentiality.\
5.5.3 **Decision workflow.** Scholarship decisions must use reviewer rotation, COI screening, and reason-coded outcomes recorded by the platform. Sponsors may not decide or influence scholarship recipient selection.\
5.5.4 **Duration and renewal.** Scholarships are time-boxed with renewal criteria, revalidation cadence, and re-attestation requirements; expiry is recorded and communicated by record-valid notices.\
5.5.5 **Accessibility accommodations funding.** Where feasible, scholarship budgets may support accessibility needs such as assistive tools, translation, captioning, and participation supports consistent with handling constraints.\
5.5.6 **Public-sector ethics constraints.** Scholarships for public-sector participants must be structured to comply with gift and inducement rules; where necessary, benefits are provided to institutions rather than individuals, and recorded as such.\
5.5.7 **Sponsor-supported scholarships firewall.** Sponsor-supported pools must be firewalled from governance, publication, and reviewer pools; sponsor disclosure is public-safe and category-based.\
5.5.8 **Applicant confidentiality.** Applicant identity and details are minimized, restricted, and logged; the default posture is non-disclosure except where lawful necessity exists.\
5.5.9 **Transparency reporting.** Scholarship and waiver volumes are reported in aggregate public-safe form, including region and category distributions where safe, without disclosing identities.\
5.5.10 **Appeals lane.** Scholarship appeals are limited to fairness and process integrity, not entitlement; appeals are handled with minimization and COI controls.

***

#### 5.6 Anti–Pay-to-Play Controls (Hard Safeguards)

5.6.1 **Prohibited influence purchases.** It is prohibited to purchase votes, veto overrides, Council seats, reviewer authority, safety gate authority, release authority, sanctions leniency, or registry prominence.\
5.6.2 **Speaker and stage integrity.** Purchasing speaker slots, stage access, or program committee influence is prohibited. Event inclusion is governed by evidence readiness, handling posture, and safety review—not sponsorship.\
5.6.3 **Procurement linkage prohibition.** Subscription and sponsorship may not be linked to procurement outcomes, vendor endorsement, bid steering, or preferred vendor lists.\
5.6.4 **No VIP governance lanes.** VIP lanes that create governance privilege, special access to decision-makers, or bypass of review/safety gates are prohibited.\
5.6.5 **Sponsor concentration controls.** Sponsor concentration caps, diversification targets, and influence indicators must be monitored and enforced; mitigation includes reviewer rotation, recusals, and access limits.\
5.6.6 **COI screens for paid relationships.** Paid relationships affecting review lanes require enhanced COI disclosure, recusal rules, and separation-of-duties controls.\
5.6.7 **Finance vs governance separation.** Financial operations are separated from governance operations by role separation, auditability, and restricted access to decision pathways.\
5.6.8 **Audit trails for exceptions.** Any entitlement exception requires a reason-coded, recorded approval with expiry; undocumented exceptions are invalid.\
5.6.9 **Enforcement measures.** Enforcement may include revocation of entitlements, role-marker removal, refunds where legally required, and sanctions under the enforcement ladder.\
5.6.10 **Public clarification protocol.** Where pay-to-play concerns arise, a public-safe clarification record must be issued, stating facts, controls applied, and corrective actions, without exposing sensitive details.

***

#### 5.7 Membership Status States and Effects

5.7.1 **Active.** Active members retain baseline access and any purchased add-ons, subject to PoC, handling, and safety holds.\
5.7.2 **Limited.** Limited status reduces access or entitlements where eligibility or safety constraints apply; it is not punitive by default and may be used for lawful constraints or training deficits.\
5.7.3 **Restricted.** Restricted status blocks controlled/restricted lanes and may limit publication rights; it requires reason-coded records and defined re-entry conditions.\
5.7.4 **Suspended.** Suspension is time-boxed removal from participation due to integrity, safety, or conduct incidents, pending review; it includes notice and appeal lanes where safe and lawful.\
5.7.5 **Removed.** Removal terminates membership with survival obligations; re-entry may be possible only under recorded conditions and cooling-off periods.\
5.7.6 **Alumni.** Alumni status is honorific read-only visibility where appropriate; it confers no authority and is subject to visibility rules and misrepresentation controls.\
5.7.7 **Read-Only.** Read-only status limits interaction to observation and learning, often used for audit, remediation, or cooling-off.\
5.7.8 **Observer.** Observer status may allow participation without Home Lab election, with limited eligibility for elevated roles and controlled lanes.\
5.7.9 **Status change triggers.** Triggers include: (i) financial lapse (tier lapse only); (ii) integrity/safety incidents; (iii) lawful constraints; (iv) repeated handling violations; and (v) misrepresentation.\
5.7.10 **Notices and records.** Status changes require record-valid notices, reason codes, effective dates, and links to appeal lanes; silent status changes are invalid.

***

#### 5.8 Billing, Renewal, Lapse, and Reactivation

5.8.1 **Billing cadence and term election.** Where paid tiers exist, billing cadence and term election are defined and recorded (monthly/annual where applicable), including currency and lawful tax treatment where required.\
5.8.2 **Renewal notices.** Renewal notices are issued by platform record with clear timelines and grace windows.\
5.8.3 **Lapse effects.** Lapse downgrades paid entitlements but preserves baseline Free membership unless membership is separately restricted for integrity/safety reasons.\
5.8.4 **Reactivation requirements.** Reactivation may require re-attestation and, for elevated privileges, PoC refresh or ILA refresh; reactivation does not guarantee role restoration.\
5.8.5 **Suspension vs lapse distinction.** Lapse is financial/administrative; suspension is integrity/safety. These are recorded and communicated separately to prevent misuse.\
5.8.6 **Auto-renew and cancellation controls.** Auto-renew settings must be explicit, reversible, and recorded; cancellation ends paid entitlements at term end unless otherwise stated by record.\
5.8.7 **Proration and plan changes.** Proration rules and mid-term plan changes are defined by record and abuse-resistant; exceptions require recorded approvals.\
5.8.8 **Non-payment dispute lane.** Billing disputes route through a correction lane with minimization; unresolved disputes may cause tier lapse but not punitive restrictions absent integrity issues.\
5.8.9 **Restricted jurisdiction constraints.** Billing and payments must comply with sanctions/export control constraints; where payment is prohibited, participation may continue under Free baseline if lawful.\
5.8.10 **Payment security and fraud controls.** Payment methods are protected by standard security controls; fraud triggers may lead to temporary holds and verification steps, recorded with reason codes.

***

#### 5.9 Refunds, Credits, and Service Availability

5.9.1 **Refund eligibility baseline.** Refund policies must be nonprofit-compatible, transparent, and abuse-resistant, and must comply with applicable law.\
5.9.2 **Non-refundable components.** Any non-refundable components must be clearly disclosed in advance by record and tied to non-recoverable costs (e.g., consumed verification capacity).\
5.9.3 **Credits in lieu of refunds.** Where appropriate, service credits or utility credits may be used in lieu of refunds, subject to non-transferability, anti-gaming controls, and clear expiry rules.\
5.9.4 **Safety holds and force majeure.** Safety holds and force majeure may pause entitlements without liability; the system prioritizes safety and integrity over service continuity.\
5.9.5 **Availability disclaimers.** No tier guarantees capacity, throughput, or acceptance of submissions. Capacity constraints are managed through queues, rate limits, and safety gating.\
5.9.6 **Billing disputes and remedies.** Billing and refund disputes link to the due process lane with defined timelines and minimization; outcomes are recorded.\
5.9.7 **Chargeback handling.** Chargebacks trigger fraud review, entitlement holds, and potential tier restrictions; members retain due process rights for correction.\
5.9.8 **Anti-gaming impacts.** Refunds and credits may affect eligibility for future discounts or tiers where abuse patterns are detected; any such rule must be recorded and applied consistently.\
5.9.9 **Accessibility exceptions.** Accessibility-related exceptions may be granted case-by-case under minimization and fairness constraints, recorded with reason codes.\
5.9.10 **Record-valid outcomes.** Refund and credit outcomes must be reason-coded and recorded; informal promises are non-authoritative.

***

#### 5.10 Sponsor and Institutional Support Structures (Without Capture)

5.10.1 **Sponsor-supported memberships.** Sponsor-supported memberships fund access and infrastructure but cannot buy influence; permissible benefits are limited to public-safe recognition and aggregated reporting.\
5.10.2 **Institutional support accounts.** Host Institutions and program sponsors may fund structured capacity building, but all governance pathways remain independent and record-governed.\
5.10.3 **Sponsor category disclosures.** Sponsor categories are disclosed publicly in a safe form; detailed terms are controlled where needed to protect integrity and negotiations.\
5.10.4 **Concentration caps and diversification.** Sponsor concentration caps and diversification targets apply; breach triggers mitigation or termination actions.\
5.10.5 **Influence indicators and mitigation.** Influence indicators are monitored (review capture, roster pressure, program interference). Mitigation includes reviewer rotation, recusals, role separations, and sponsor benefit reductions.\
5.10.6 **No guaranteed publication outcomes.** Sponsorship cannot guarantee publication acceptance, review outcomes, badges, or prominence; all outputs remain subject to safety and quality gates.\
5.10.7 **Sponsor benefits constraints.** Benefits cannot include procurement steering, policy endorsement, deal-room access, or targeting access; any public recognition is scoped and non-implying.\
5.10.8 **Prohibited sponsorship structures.** Exclusive influence, veto purchase, privileged restricted access, or sponsor-controlled program committees are prohibited.\
5.10.9 **Termination and clawbacks.** Sponsorship may be terminated for capture attempts, misrepresentation, or misconduct; clawbacks or refunds follow recorded policy and applicable law.\
5.10.10 **Integrity response for controversies.** Sponsor controversies trigger an integrity response: public-safe clarification, separation actions, and review of concentration/capture risks, without exposing sensitive details.

***

#### 5.11 Financial Transparency Minima and Reporting

5.11.1 **Published plan descriptions.** Plan descriptions and price bands are published in public-safe form, with clear statements of what is and is not included.\
5.11.2 **Aggregate membership metrics.** Aggregate reporting includes membership counts, distribution by plan class, renewal rates, and broad geographic distribution where safe.\
5.11.3 **Scholarship reporting.** Scholarship/waiver volumes and allocation summaries are reported in aggregate, preserving applicant privacy.\
5.11.4 **Sponsor reporting.** Sponsor categories and concentration ratios are reported in public-safe form; sensitive contract terms remain controlled.\
5.11.5 **Controlled financial detail governance.** Access to detailed financial records is governed by role markers, access logs, and audit requirements; distribution is minimized.\
5.11.6 **Audit posture.** Trustees oversee annual reviews and audits; special audits may be commissioned for suspected pay-to-play, capture risk, or systemic control failures.\
5.11.7 **Misrepresentation controls.** Claims implying “paid membership equals endorsement” are prohibited; the platform must support takedown and clarification actions.\
5.11.8 **No investment framing.** Financial communications must avoid any investment framing, return representations, or implied financial benefit to members or sponsors.\
5.11.9 **COI disclosures for financial decisions.** Where financial decisions intersect with governance roles, COI disclosure and recusal requirements apply, recorded by reason codes.\
5.11.10 **Corrections and restatements.** Financial reporting errors require record-valid corrections and restatements with supersession discipline.

***

#### 5.12 Pricing Governance, Change Control, and Supersession (Part 5 Specific)

5.12.1 **Authority to set price bands.** Price bands and plan structures are set only by designated bodies and recorded by platform record with effective dates, rationale, and scope.\
5.12.2 **Notice periods.** Pricing changes require advance notice by platform record, with defined notice periods and contestation windows where designated by governance instruments.\
5.12.3 **Grandfathering and transitions.** Grandfathering rules and transition plans must be explicit, time-boxed, and recorded; silent removal of legacy plans is prohibited.\
5.12.4 **Local pricing adaptations.** Local currency pricing and purchasing power adjustments may be applied to protect inclusion, provided they are non-discriminatory, reason-coded, and consistent with lawful constraints.\
5.12.5 **Anti-discrimination in pricing.** Pricing may not discriminate on protected attributes; regional adjustments must be justified by inclusion and cost realities, not exclusionary intent.\
5.12.6 **Emergency pricing relief.** Emergency relief may be granted during crises as a time-boxed, transparent measure with clear criteria and expiry; relief may not be used to create influence dependencies.\
5.12.7 **Pricing exceptions.** Exceptions require recorded approvals, reason codes, COI screening where applicable, and expiry; undocumented exceptions are invalid.\
5.12.8 **Supersession discipline.** Pricing schedules and plan descriptions are superseded only by record-valid updates with diffs; silent edits are prohibited.\
5.12.9 **Member communications.** Member communications regarding pricing are authoritative only when linked to the platform record; marketing pages must be version-aligned.\
5.12.10 **Periodic review and sunset.** Plans and price bands are reviewed periodically; legacy plans may sunset only with recorded notice, transition support, and explicit effective dates.


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