Thesis License Agreement

Last updated: 5 April 2026

This Agreement governs your access to and use of the master's thesis "From Paper to API: Building a Human-Centric Ecosystem for Faster, Cheaper, and More Secure Cross-Border Commodity Trade" (the "Thesis") by Vadim Linchevsky, made available at kansofy.com/thesis. By requesting access, viewing, or downloading the Thesis, you agree to be bound by this Agreement.

Ownership: The Thesis is the sole original work of Vadim Linchevsky, who retains all copyright, moral rights, and all other intellectual property rights in the Thesis in perpetuity. Nothing in this Agreement transfers any ownership to you.

1. Definitions

"Author" means Vadim Linchevsky, the sole author and copyright holder of the Thesis.
"Thesis" means the written master's thesis titled above, together with all text, figures, tables, annexes, data, citations, and the specific selection and arrangement thereof, in any format (including the watermarked PDF delivered to you).
"Licensed Copy" means the individual watermarked PDF delivered to you, bearing your name, email, and, where provided, company name.
"You" means the individual identified in the Licensed Copy watermark.

2. Grant of license

Subject to your continued compliance with this Agreement, the Author grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable, personal license to:

Access and read the Licensed Copy for your own personal, professional, educational, or research evaluation purposes; and
Quote short excerpts from the Thesis in your own work, provided you include a full attribution (see Section 5).

No other rights are granted. This license is a permission to read your Licensed Copy, not a transfer of the Thesis or any rights in it.

3. Restrictions

You shall not, and shall not permit any third party to:

Reproduce the Thesis in whole or in substantial part, except for a single backup copy on a device you personally control
Publish, post, distribute, resell, sublicense, rent, lease, or otherwise make the Thesis (or your Licensed Copy) available to any third party, in any medium, whether for profit or not
Upload, submit, or share the Thesis or Licensed Copy with any public or private AI system, machine learning pipeline, training corpus, retrieval index, vector store, or data mining tool, whether or not for the purpose of training or fine-tuning a model
Use the Thesis or any part of it as input to develop, train, evaluate, or improve any AI model or derivative work, including in aggregate with other texts
Create derivative works based on the Thesis, including translations, summaries-for-publication, adaptations, or reformatted editions
Remove, obscure, alter, crop, blur, or otherwise interfere with the watermark, attribution lines, or any copyright, credit, or identification notices in the Licensed Copy
Circumvent, bypass, or attempt to defeat access controls, watermarking, token authentication, or any technical protection measures
Use the Thesis or any excerpt for commercial purposes, including investment solicitation, marketing collateral, consulting deliverables, or competitive research reports, without prior written permission from the Author
Misrepresent the Thesis's findings, misattribute its conclusions, or use it out of context in a way that materially distorts its meaning

4. Watermarking and traceability

Each Licensed Copy is individually watermarked with your name, email address, company (where provided), and the date of access. Every view and every download generates a freshly watermarked PDF. The watermark is a permanent part of the file, embedded on every page. Distribution of a Licensed Copy is therefore attributable to you. The Author may use this attribution to enforce this Agreement.

5. Attribution

Short quotations from the Thesis, within the bounds of fair use/fair dealing, are permitted only with full attribution:

Linchevsky, V. (2025). From Paper to API: Building a Human-Centric Ecosystem for Faster, Cheaper, and More Secure Cross-Border Commodity Trade. Master's thesis, Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA program.

6. Intellectual property

The Thesis is protected by copyright, database rights, and other intellectual property laws of the United States, the European Union, the State of Israel, and other jurisdictions. The Author reserves all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement. In particular, the Author retains:

Sole copyright in the Thesis, including the text, figures, tables, data, structure, and selection/arrangement of content
All rights to reproduce, distribute, publish, adapt, translate, publicly display, publicly perform, and create derivative works
All moral rights, including the right to be identified as author and to object to derogatory treatment
All rights to use, license, or assign the Thesis in any medium, for any purpose, now or in the future

For the avoidance of doubt, this Agreement does not grant you any trademark rights, patent rights, or rights in the Kansofy brand, the Clover character, or any related intellectual property, all of which remain with their respective owners.

7. Confidentiality

Until the Thesis is published in a generally available form (such as a public repository, book, or journal), you shall treat the Licensed Copy as confidential and shall not disclose its contents beyond what is expressly permitted by Sections 2 and 5. If the Author publishes the Thesis publicly, this confidentiality obligation terminates with respect to the publicly released version.

8. Term and termination

This Agreement is effective from the moment you request access and continues until terminated. The Author may terminate this Agreement (and your license) at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, including if the Author believes you have breached this Agreement. Upon termination, you must immediately cease accessing the Thesis, delete all Licensed Copies in your possession or control, and confirm deletion to the Author upon request. Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 survive termination.

9. No warranty

The Thesis is provided "as is". The Author makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. The Thesis reflects research and the Author's views as of the date of submission and is not professional, legal, financial, or operational advice.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Author and Kansofy Inc. shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunities, arising out of or related to your use of the Thesis, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. The Author's and Kansofy's total aggregate liability for any claim arising from this Agreement shall not exceed one hundred US dollars ($100).

11. Enforcement and remedies

You acknowledge that any breach of Sections 3, 4, or 6 will cause the Author irreparable harm for which monetary damages alone would be inadequate, and that the Author is entitled to seek injunctive relief, specific performance, and all other legal and equitable remedies, in addition to any damages, attorneys' fees, and costs, without any obligation to post bond.

12. Governing law and venue

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Delaware for any dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement.

13. Miscellaneous

This Agreement is the entire agreement between you and the Author regarding the Thesis and supersedes any prior understanding. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect. Failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver. You may not assign this Agreement. The Author may assign it freely.

Contact

Licensing inquiries, permissions beyond this Agreement, and notices: [email protected].