Ben Vagle’s legal-policy analysis, translated by Internet Law Review, examines how U.S. regulators might license the release of open-weight AI models. It identifies the Commerce Department’s export-control system as the most readily available existing tool, while warning that its lack of decision deadlines and meaningful judicial review would make it vulnerable if model weights qualify as protected speech. The legal status of model weights remains unsettled. Vagle argues that any system should include First Amendment-style safeguards, such as objective standards, deadlines, transparency and judicial review. He recommends embedding these safeguards in any export-control licensing regime and, preferably, creating a more durable licensing framework through legislation.