vehicles 0.6.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/us-ri.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,445 @@
+# plates/us-ri.yml — Rhode Island (PRD-PLATES gate L2, northeast group).
+#
+# RHODE ISLAND IS THE ONLY STATE IN THIS GROUP WHOSE STATUTE SPELLS OUT THE FULL
+# CONTENTS OF THE PLATE, and it does so in one tidy section. R.I. Gen. Laws
+# § 31-3-11(a), verbatim: "Every registration plate shall have displayed upon it
+# the registration number assigned to the vehicle for which it is issued, the
+# name of the state of Rhode Island, WHICH MAY BE ABBREVIATED 'R.I.', and the
+# year number for which it is issued or the date of its expiration. Registration
+# plates shall also have printed on them the words, 'ocean state'." Four
+# mandatory elements — serial, state name, validity marking, slogan — with an
+# express abbreviation permission. And then § 31-3-11(b) does something no other
+# statute in this group does: it carves the slogan mandate BACK OUT for two
+# classes — "The provision requiring the printing of the words 'ocean state' on
+# these plates shall not pertain to commercial plates or to plates issued to
+# recipients of the Purple Heart." A slogan mandate WITH statutory exceptions is
+# a design rule precise enough to validate a render against.
+#
+# NOTE THE CASING. The statute writes the slogan in lower case, twice, inside
+# quotation marks: 'ocean state'. Every plate issued shows it as "Ocean State".
+# Recorded, not smoothed: statutes are not typographic specifications, and a
+# render that follows the statute's casing literally would be wrong.
+#
+# THE PLATE COUNT IS ALSO STATUTORY AND IS PER-CLASS, which is unusual: § 31-3-10
+# names the one-plate classes exhaustively rather than stating a default and an
+# exception. See display_rules.
+jurisdiction: us-ri
+authority:
+  name: Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles, Rhode Island Department of Revenue
+  url: "https://dmv.ri.gov/"
+binding: vehicle
+statute_edition: >-
+  Rhode Island General Laws, Title 31 (Motor and Other Vehicles), Chapter 31-3
+  (Registration of Vehicles) — §§ 31-3-10, 31-3-11, 31-3-12 and 31-3-25 read
+  this pass from webserver.rilin.state.ri.us via the Wayback Machine, the live
+  RI legislature hosts being unreachable from this environment (recorded).
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# artwork_risk — required per jurisdiction by PRD-PLATES §4.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+artwork_risk:
+  posture: permissive-policy-no-warranty
+  basis: >-
+    Rhode Island is the only state in this group with an EXPRESS, FETCHED
+    copyright policy of its own, and it is genuinely permissive while refusing to
+    warrant anything. RI.gov's Copyright policy, verbatim: "The State of Rhode
+    Island makes the content of this WWW site available to the public. Anyone may
+    view information found here without obligation to the State of Rhode Island,
+    unless otherwise stated on particular articles of information to which a
+    restriction on fair use may apply. However, THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND MAKES
+    NO WARRANTY that materials contained herein are free of copyright claims or
+    other restrictions or limitations on fair use or display. THE COMPILED
+    INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THIS WWW SITE IS CONSIDERED PUBLIC INFORMATION AND
+    MAY BE DISTRIBUTED OR COPIED. However, use of appropriate byline/photo/image
+    credits is requested."
+  reading: >-
+    Better than silence, weaker than Florida. Three limits matter. (1) It is a
+    WEBSITE policy, not a statute or a holding — it speaks to "content of this
+    WWW site", and a plate design is not obviously website content. (2) The
+    no-warranty sentence is doing real work: the state declines to say the
+    material is free of third-party claims, which is exactly the situation for a
+    charity plate whose artwork belongs to the charity (see the specialty index —
+    seventeen of Rhode Island's plates carry private organizations' artwork). (3)
+    The credit request is a request, not a condition, but a courteous consumer
+    honours it. Separately, R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3 makes all records kept by a
+    public body public records open to inspection and copying — an ACCESS statute,
+    which is NOT a copyright waiver and is not treated as one here.
+  emblem_rule: >-
+    PRD-PLATES §3 placeholder default applies. The current base carries a screened
+    NAVY BLUE ANCHOR at top left — the state's emblem, which also appears on the
+    state flag and seal — and state-emblem protection independent of copyright is
+    unresearched for Rhode Island (recorded gap). The State and State Police
+    series additionally carry the STATE SEAL itself, which is the sharpest case:
+    seal-misuse statutes are a separate regime from copyright and none was
+    located this pass.
+  photograph_caution: "Commons photographs of Rhode Island plates carry the photographer's licence on the photograph; the uploader had no standing over the design. Our renders are generated from spec, so those obligations never attach."
+  sources:
+    - "https://www.ri.gov/policies/copyright/  # fetched this pass: the State of Rhode Island's own Copyright policy, quoted verbatim above — public information may be distributed or copied, no warranty against third-party claims, credits requested"
+    - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_subnational_governments_of_the_United_States  # LOCATOR: the Rhode Island entry, which cites R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-3 (public records open to inspection and copying) and the § 38-2-2(4) exceptions. An access statute, recorded as such"
+    - "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=Template:PD-RIGov  # queried this pass: MISSING — no Rhode Island public-domain tag exists on Commons"
+
+display_rules:
+  plate_count_is_statutory_and_per_class: >-
+    § 31-3-10, verbatim: "The division of motor vehicles, upon registering a
+    vehicle, shall issue to the owner ONE fully reflective registration plate for
+    each MOTORCYCLE, TRAILER, SEMI-TRAILER, IN-TRANSIT VEHICLE, TRANSPORTER,
+    BAILEE VEHICLE, or a DEALER VEHICLE and TWO (2) fully reflective registration
+    plates for EVERY OTHER MOTOR VEHICLE." Note what this does: it enumerates the
+    single-plate classes exhaustively and makes two plates the residual rule, so
+    the front-plate question in Rhode Island is answered by a closed list rather
+    than by a default plus exceptions. It also makes FULL REFLECTIVITY statutory
+    for every class.
+  legibility: "§ 31-3-12: 'Each registration plate and the required letters and numerals on it, except the year number for which issued, shall be of sufficient size to be plainly readable from a distance of ONE HUNDRED FEET (100') during daylight.' The strictest legibility distance in this group — CT legislates fifty feet at night, MA sixty at night, RI a hundred in daylight — and note the express exemption of the year number from the size test."
+  penalty: "§ 31-3-12: violations are subject to the fines enumerated in § 31-41.1-4."
+  contents: "§ 31-3-11(a): serial, the state name (abbreviable to 'R.I.'), the year of issue or the expiration date, and the words 'ocean state'; (b) the slogan requirement does not apply to commercial plates or Purple Heart plates."
+  front_plate_practice_note: >-
+    A widely repeated secondary claim holds that Rhode Island requires a front
+    plate only on vehicles delivered with a factory front bracket, and separately
+    that Rhode Island was moving to single rear plates in June 2026. NEITHER IS
+    SUPPORTED BY § 31-3-10 AS READ THIS PASS, which states a flat two-plate rule
+    for everything outside its enumerated list and says nothing about brackets.
+    The disagreement is recorded, not resolved; if a 2026 amendment exists it was
+    not located, and the statute text captured here is the one that governs until
+    a later instrument is pinned. This is exactly the class of claim PRD-PLATES
+    §9 warns is folklore-prone.
+  sources:
+    - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-10.HTM  # § 31-3-10: one plate for motorcycle, trailer, semi-trailer, in-transit, transporter, bailee and dealer vehicles; two for every other motor vehicle; all fully reflective. Read via the Wayback Machine (live host unreachable this pass)"
+    - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM  # § 31-3-11(a) the four mandatory plate contents and the 'R.I.' abbreviation permission; (b) the commercial and Purple Heart carve-outs from the slogan"
+    - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-12.HTM  # § 31-3-12: the 100-foot daylight legibility test, the year-number exemption, and the § 31-41.1-4 penalty hook"
+
+us_standards:
+  no_federal_mandate: true
+  chain: "SAE J686 -> AAMVA License Plate Standard Edition 3 (September 2025) -> voluntary state adoption; recommendations, not requirements."
+  aamva_geometry: "AAMVA §2.1 jurisdiction name top-centre between the bolt holes, >=0.25 in above the plate number, >=0.125 in from the top edge, characters 0.75-1.0 in; §2.2 serial characters >=2.5 in high, >=0.25 in apart, stroke 0.2-0.4 in, >=1.25 in clear of top and bottom; §3.3 legible day and night from >=75 feet, ASTM D4956-19 and ISO 7591:1982 cl.3, entrance angle 0.2 deg, observation angle -4 deg, minimum 45 cd/lx/m^2."
+  aamva_vs_ri_legibility: "AAMVA §3.3 asks for legibility at >=75 feet in daylight AND at night. Rhode Island legislates 100 feet in daylight and says nothing about night. So Rhode Island's statutory daylight bar is HIGHER than AAMVA's recommendation and its night bar is absent — a jurisdiction can exceed the voluntary standard on one axis and omit it on another, which is what 'voluntary adoption' looks like in practice."
+  dimensions_delegated: "AAMVA §3.1 sends dimensions and bolt holes to SAE J686, PAYWALLED and UNPINNED; no J686 dimension is quoted here. Chapter 31-3 states no plate dimension, so 12x6 in below is `observed`."
+  replacement_cycle: "Rhode Island legislates none for passenger plates. It DOES legislate one for dealer plates: § 31-3-25(a) requires reissuance 'every three (3) years in clearly distinguishable colors'. See us-ri-dealer — it is the only legislated plate cycle found anywhere in the northeast group."
+  source: "https://www.aamva.org/getmedia/646bcc8a-219b-47d8-b5cd-726240473163/License-Plate-Standard-Edition-3_September-2025-Update.pdf"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT STANDARD ISSUE — the 2023 "Ocean Plate".
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ri-standard-2023
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 2023 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-dated
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "9LL 999"
+      regex: '\A\d[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Reported: one digit, two letters, three digits, running 1LE 100 to
+          1ZF 266 as of 30 January 2025. Chapter 31-3 states NO grammar, NO
+          length and NO alphabet — § 31-3-11 requires the plate to display "the
+          registration number assigned to the vehicle" and stops — so the shape
+          is secondary. NOTE THE CONTINUITY: this series did not restart, it
+          continued the wave base's 1AB 234 sequence, which had reached 1KV 999
+          by 2023. So the format alone cannot date a Rhode Island plate; only the
+          leading letter block can, and that boundary is locator-grade.
+        remakes: "the current base is also used for REMAKES of previously issued serials in every older Rhode Island format, so a 2023-base plate may legitimately carry a 1996-era serial shape. A parse API must not infer the base from the serial."
+      separator_note: "printed with a gap (1AB 234). The wave base's 1AL-to-1BQ blocks are reported to have printed the same format with NO space at all, so both spaced and unspaced forms are genuine; the ` ?` quantifier covers both, which is the separator contract working as designed (PRD-PLATES §2.6)"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, dimension_note: "OBSERVED — Chapter 31-3 states no plate dimension" }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective, statutory_basis: "§ 31-3-10 requires 'fully reflective registration plates' for every class — reflectivity is statutory in Rhode Island, unlike its colour" }
+      colour_note: >-
+        NO HEX RECORDED FOR THE BACKGROUND. The base is described as reflective
+        LIGHT BLUE carrying a five-wave graphic, so a single flat hex would
+        misdescribe it; the serial is SCREENED navy blue (not embossed — a
+        manufacturing change from the wave base, which embossed). The statute
+        names no colour anywhere.
+      foreground: "#0B2C5C"
+      legend_top: "Rhode Island"
+      legend_bottom: "Ocean State"
+      legend_rule: >-
+        BOTH LEGENDS ARE STATUTORY IN SUBSTANCE. § 31-3-11(a) requires the plate
+        to bear "the name of the state of Rhode Island, which may be abbreviated
+        'R.I.'" and to have "printed on them the words, 'ocean state'". The
+        statute fixes neither position nor case; the issued plate sets the state
+        name at top and the slogan at the bottom in a script face. See the file
+        header on casing.
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "five-wave graphic across the plate; navy blue anchor screened at top left (secondary)" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    validation_marking: "§ 31-3-11(a) requires 'the year number for which it is issued or the date of its expiration' on the plate face — a statutory validity marking, satisfied in practice by a sticker. § 31-3-12 expressly exempts that year number from the 100-foot legibility test, which is a nice piece of drafting: the law demands the date be present but not that it be readable from a distance."
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM  # § 31-3-11(a): the assigned registration number, the state name with its 'R.I.' abbreviation permission, the year-or-expiration marking, and the mandatory words 'ocean state'"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-10.HTM  # § 31-3-10: two fully reflective plates for every motor vehicle outside the enumerated single-plate classes"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-12.HTM  # § 31-3-12: the 100-foot daylight legibility standard and the year-number exemption"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Rhode_Island  # LOCATOR ONLY (PRD-PLATES §4): the 2023 'Ocean Plate', its five-wave light blue design with screened navy serial and anchor, the 1AB 234 arrangement continuing from the wave base, the 1LE 100 to 1ZF 266 range as of 30 January 2025, and the remakes practice"
+    notes: >-
+      RHODE ISLAND CURRENT STANDARD, the "Ocean Plate". The interesting property
+      for a parse API is that Rhode Island DOES NOT PARTITION ITS SERIAL SPACE BY
+      BASE: the 2023 plate continued the 1996 base's sequence, and the 2023 base
+      is also used to remake serials in every historical Rhode Island format. So
+      a Rhode Island serial identifies a REGISTRATION, not a plate generation,
+      and any inference from format to era is unsafe here in a way it is not in
+      Maine or Massachusetts. That is a genuine per-jurisdiction difference in
+      what a serial means, and it is the sort of thing only a period-disciplined
+      dataset can record.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE SERIES BACK — the 1996 "wave plate".
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ri-wave-1996
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1996, end: 2023 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-dated
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "9LL 999"
+      regex: '\A(?:\d[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}|\d{3}-?\d{3}|[A-Z]{2}-?\d{2,3}|\d{1,5})\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          FOUR GRAMMARS OVER TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS, run partly in parallel and partly
+          in sequence, which is why this series is `recall-only` and why its regex
+          is a union: (a) a VARIABLE-LENGTH all-numeric 12345, one to five digits,
+          1 to 99999; (b) AB-12 and AB-123, AA-00 to ZZ-999, reported in two
+          separate windows 1996-2007 and again 2015-2020; (c) 123-456, 710-001
+          DOWN TO 399-999 with the leading number progressing IN REVERSE,
+          2007-2015; (d) 1AB234 / 1AB 234, 1AA 100 to 1KV 999, 2020-2023. A hit on
+          the union says only "this string has a shape Rhode Island issued on the
+          wave base".
+      variable_width_note: "the all-numeric form is genuinely VARIABLE WIDTH with no leading zeros — the Delaware problem, and the reason PRD-PLATES §2.2 says regexes quantify rather than fix width. \\d{1,5} makes no width claim beyond five."
+      separator_note: "the AB-12/AB-123 and 123-456 forms print a HYPHEN, which is in the emitted set; the 1AB 234 form prints a space, EXCEPT in the reported 1AL-to-1BQ blocks which printed no separator at all. Every one of those is covered by the optional-separator spelling, which is precisely what §2.6's forgiving/emitted split exists to make sound"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#0B2C5C"
+      colour_note: "embossed navy blue serial on reflective white with a grey wave graphic; 'Rhode Island' screened navy at top with a navy anchor at top left (secondary). Colloquially the 'wave plate'"
+      legend_top: "Rhode Island"
+      legend_bottom: "Ocean State"
+      legend_rule: "§ 31-3-11 — the same statutory contents as the current base; twenty-seven years, four grammars, one unchanged statutory legend set"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "grey wave graphic; navy anchor at top left (secondary)" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM  # § 31-3-11: the statutory contents this base satisfied unchanged across all four of its serial grammars"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Rhode_Island  # LOCATOR ONLY: the 1996-2023 wave base, the four serial arrangements with their windows and ranges, the REVERSE progression of the 123-456 form, and the unspaced 1AL-to-1BQ blocks"
+    notes: >-
+      THE WAVE PLATE. Two facts worth carrying past this gate. First, the
+      123-456 arrangement ran BACKWARDS (710-001 down to 399-999), the second
+      descending US sequence this group found after New Hampshire's six-digit
+      passenger series — descending serials are evidently not a curiosity but a
+      recurring administrative choice, and any era-inference model that assumes
+      monotone ascent is wrong twice in six states. Second, Rhode Island returned
+      to the AB-123 grammar in 2015 after eight years away from it, so the same
+      shape appears in two disjoint windows on one base. `recall-only` is the only
+      honest matching setting for a series like that.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CORE DISTINCT CLASSES.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ri-motorcycle
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2023 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-dated
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "99999"
+      regex: '\A\d{1,5}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "variable-length all-numeric, 1 to 99999, plus reissues of dormant serials. The {1,5} quantifier makes no width claim beyond five" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 7, h: 4, unit: in, dimension_note: "MOTORCYCLE PLATE SIZE NOT OBTAINED — placeholder at the conventional US motorcycle size; Chapter 31-3 states no dimension for any plate (recorded gap)" }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective, statutory_basis: "§ 31-3-10 requires the motorcycle plate to be 'fully reflective' in the same breath as it limits it to one" }
+      legend_top: "MOTORCYCLE"
+      legend_bottom: "RI"
+      legend_note: "'RI' at bottom left — § 31-3-11(a)'s abbreviation permission ('which may be abbreviated \"R.I.\"') exercised, and the clearest illustration of why that clause is in the statute: a motorcycle plate has no room for the full state name"
+    display_rule: "ONE plate, statutorily: § 31-3-10 names motorcycles first in its single-plate list"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-10.HTM  # § 31-3-10: one fully reflective plate for each motorcycle"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM  # § 31-3-11(a): the 'R.I.' abbreviation permission this plate relies on"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Rhode_Island  # LOCATOR ONLY: the 12345 motorcycle arrangement 1 to 99999 with reissues, and the 2023 change from embossed to screened legends"
+    notes: >-
+      MOTORCYCLE. § 31-3-2.2 of the same chapter separately governs the
+      registration of motorcycles, motorized bicycles and motorized tricycles;
+      its text was not obtained (recorded gap), and if it carries a plate rule
+      for motorized bicycles that would be a distinct series this file does not
+      have.
+
+  - id: us-ri-commercial
+    class: standard
+    categories: [truck, van]
+    period: { start: 2023 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-dated
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999999"
+      regex: '\A\d{1,6}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "variable-length all-numeric, reported 1 to 260089 plus reissues of dormant serials — the same numeric space as the Combination class, which is a genuine ambiguity: two Rhode Island classes drawing from one range, distinguishable only by the legend on the plate" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      legend_bottom: "COMMERCIAL"
+      legend_rule: >-
+        THIS IS THE STATUTORY CARVE-OUT MADE VISIBLE. § 31-3-11(b): "The
+        provision requiring the printing of the words 'ocean state' on these
+        plates shall not pertain to COMMERCIAL PLATES or to plates issued to
+        recipients of the Purple Heart." So the word COMMERCIAL sits where the
+        slogan would, and it does so with express statutory permission rather
+        than by departmental choice — the only slogan exemption in the northeast
+        group written into law.
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM  # § 31-3-11(b): the express exemption of commercial plates (and Purple Heart plates) from the 'ocean state' slogan requirement"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-10.HTM  # § 31-3-10: commercial plates are not in the single-plate list, so two plates are issued; the section also directs that commercial-plate applications be available at all DMV offices"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Rhode_Island  # LOCATOR ONLY: the six-digit commercial arrangement, the 1 to 260089 range with reissues, and the shared range with Combination plates"
+    notes: >-
+      COMMERCIAL. Recorded as class `standard` with the legend carrying the
+      meaning; see the class-vocabulary note in us-ma.yml. The statutory slogan
+      exemption is the reason this series earns its own entry rather than a
+      sub-entry: it is a DESIGN difference mandated by law, which is the §2.3 test.
+
+  - id: us-ri-dealer
+    class: dealer
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2018 }
+    period_evidence: statutory-date
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "L9999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{1,2} ?\d{1,5}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          THE STATUTE DESCRIBES THE STRUCTURE WITHOUT GIVING THE GRAMMAR, which
+          is rare and useful. § 31-3-25(a): dealer plates "shall have displayed
+          on them THE GENERAL DISTINGUISHING NUMBER ASSIGNED TO THE APPLICANT.
+          Each plate so issued shall also contain A NUMBER OR SYMBOL IDENTIFYING
+          THE PLATE FROM EVERY OTHER PLATE BEARING THE SAME GENERAL DISTINGUISHING
+          NUMBER." So a Rhode Island dealer serial is provably two-part — a
+          dealership identifier plus a per-plate discriminator — and that is a
+          statutory fact about the SEMANTICS of the serial even though no primary
+          gives its widths or alphabet. The regex is a deliberately loose union
+          over the described structure; `recall-only` is the honest setting.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective, statutory_basis: "§ 31-3-10 requires the single dealer plate to be fully reflective" }
+      colour_rule: >-
+        COLOUR IS STATUTORY HERE AND IT IS A CODE. § 31-3-25(a): the division
+        "shall issue dealer's plates every three (3) years IN CLEARLY
+        DISTINGUISHABLE COLORS, ONE COLOR TO BE USED BY NEW VEHICLE DEALERS,
+        ANOTHER COLOR FOR USED VEHICLES DEALERS, AND ANOTHER COLOR FOR
+        TRANSPORTER AND BAILEE PLATES. The color for each category enumerated in
+        this section shall be changed every three (3) years with the issuance of
+        the plates." Three category colours, all rotated on a three-year cycle,
+        all mandated. THE ACTUAL COLOUR VALUES ARE NOT IN THE STATUTE and were not
+        obtained (recorded gap) — the statute mandates that colour CARRY MEANING
+        without saying which colour carries which, exactly as Florida's
+        § 320.086(1) requires historic plates to be "of a distinguishing color"
+        without naming one.
+    replacement_cycle:
+      years: 3
+      statutory_text: "§ 31-3-25(a): dealer plates issued 'every three (3) years in clearly distinguishable colors'; § 31-3-25(b): 'The dealer plate issuance scheduled for January 1, 2017, shall be deferred until January 1, 2018 to coincide with the dealer license renewal cycle.'"
+      note: "THE ONLY LEGISLATED PLATE REPLACEMENT CYCLE FOUND ANYWHERE IN THE NORTHEAST GROUP, and it sits well inside AAMVA §1.1's 7-to-10-year recommendation because its purpose is not retroreflectivity but ENFORCEMENT — a colour that changes every three years makes an expired dealer plate visible at a glance."
+    binding: business
+    region_encoding: "none — the 'general distinguishing number' identifies a DEALERSHIP, not a place. A business decode, and no registry of assigned numbers was obtained (recorded gap)"
+    sources:
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-25.HTM  # § 31-3-25(a): the general distinguishing number, the per-plate discriminating number or symbol, the three-year issuance cycle, and the three mandated category colours (new dealers / used dealers / transporter and bailee); (b) the deferral of the 1 January 2017 issuance to 1 January 2018"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-10.HTM  # § 31-3-10: one fully reflective plate for a dealer vehicle, a transporter and a bailee vehicle"
+    notes: >-
+      DEALER — the best-sourced dealer series in this group and one of the
+      best-sourced anywhere in the dataset, because Rhode Island legislates the
+      SEMANTICS of the serial, the CYCLE of reissuance and the FUNCTION of the
+      colour, while leaving the values to the division. `period.start: 2018` is a
+      real statutory date: § 31-3-25(b) moved the cycle's anchor from 1 January
+      2017 to 1 January 2018, so the current three-year cadence runs 2018, 2021,
+      2024, 2027 — a rare case where a dataset can PREDICT the next reissue from
+      the statute alone. Whether it has held is not verified (recorded gap).
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # SPECIALTY — PROGRAM INDEX ONLY (PRD-PLATES §2.5).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ri-specialty-index
+    class: specialty
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2023 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{1,6}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          RHODE ISLAND CHARITY PLATES CARRY OWNER-CHOSEN CHARACTER STRINGS WITH
+          PER-PROGRAM LENGTH CAPS, which the DMV states plate by plate: Bristol
+          Fourth of July "a maximum of 6 characters"; Conservation Through
+          Education "a maximum of 5 characters"; Day of Portugal 5; Gaspee Days
+          "a maximum of 6 letters/numbers"; Gloria Gemma 6; New England Patriots
+          5; Plum Beach Lighthouse 5; Pomham Rocks Lighthouse 5. So the specialty
+          space is a VANITY space with a per-program cap of five or six, not a
+          department-assigned sequence — the opposite of Massachusetts, where the
+          RMV states that specialty plates cannot be vanity and no specific number
+          may be requested. Two neighbouring states, opposite rules.
+      union_note: "`recall-only` and a six-character catch-all, because the cap VARIES BY PROGRAM (5 or 6) and no single grammar describes the space. A hit says 'this could be a Rhode Island charity-plate string', nothing more."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      note: "one design per authorised charity; individual designs are L4 scope (PRD-PLATES §2.5) and none is described here"
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    program_index:
+      count_official_in_production: 17
+      count_basis: >-
+        SEVENTEEN charity plates listed as "Currently in Production" on the RI
+        DMV's own page, counted mechanically by the "Enabling Legislation:"
+        heading the DMV attaches to each. The DMV maintains a SECOND list,
+        "Taking Preorders", for authorised-but-not-yet-produced plates — so
+        Rhode Island's index has two states and the count above is the produced
+        one. The preorder list was not counted this pass (recorded gap).
+      every_plate_has_a_statute: >-
+        THE STRUCTURAL FINDING, AND IT MAKES RHODE ISLAND THE SECOND
+        STATUTE-INDEXED SPECIALTY PROGRAM IN THIS GROUP AFTER CONNECTICUT. Every
+        single charity plate is created by its own section of R.I. Gen. Laws
+        Chapter 31-3, and the DMV prints the citation under each entry. Observed
+        this pass: § 31-3-72 (Mr. ...), 31-3-79 (Audubon Society of Rhode Island /
+        Save the Bay — the Osprey "Conservation Through Education" plate), 31-3-85
+        (New England Patriots Charitable Foundation), 31-3-86 (Friends of Plum
+        Beach Lighthouse), 31-3-90 (Red Sox Foundation), 31-3-91 (Bristol Fourth
+        of July Committee), 31-3-93 (Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource
+        Foundation), 31-3-99 (Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode
+        Island), 31-3-102 (Boston Bruins Foundation), 31-3-105 (Rhode Island
+        private colleges and universities), 31-3-108 (The Rocky Point Foundation),
+        31-3-112 (Gaspee Days Committee), 31-3-118 (Day of Portugal and Portuguese
+        Heritage in RI), 31-3-122 (Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse), 31-3-124
+        (The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation), 31-3-125 (Beavertail Lighthouse
+        Museum Association), 31-3-126 (Atlantic Shark Institute). Seventeen
+        sections, seventeen plates, one-to-one.
+      surcharge_model: "most programs carry a $10 annual registration renewal surcharge that goes to the organization, on top of $43.50 for the initial order and $33.50 for a remake. Bristol Fourth of July is expressly exempt from the renewal surcharge — a per-program variation the statute presumably carries."
+      vehicle_class_restrictions: "programs differ in which registration classes they may be used on: some passenger-only, some passenger and commercial, the Atlantic Shark Institute plate 'can be put on passenger, motorcycle, combination, and commercial vehicles'. Gaspee Days plates additionally may not be used on new or changed registrations at all — they substitute for an EXISTING private passenger registration only."
+      artwork_ownership_flag: >-
+        DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO artwork_risk AND TO THE RENDER LAYER. Rhode Island's
+        DMV states of the Gaspee Days plate that it is "based on R.I. artist Karl
+        Doerflinger's painting, The Burning of the Gaspee". That is a named
+        living-artist work reproduced on a state plate — the artwork is NOT a state
+        work at all, and the state's own copyright policy expressly disclaims any
+        warranty that its material is free of third-party claims. Together with New
+        Hampshire's charity decals, this is the group's clearest evidence that US
+        specialty-plate artwork frequently belongs to someone other than the state,
+        and that a per-state `artwork_risk` posture does not settle the specialty
+        layer. PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder default is the correct render posture
+        and this is a concrete reason for it.
+      official_list_url: "https://dmv.ri.gov/registrations-plates-titles/license-plates/charity-plates/currently-production"
+      official_preorder_url: "https://dmv.ri.gov/registrations-plates-titles/license-plates/charity-plates/taking-preorders"
+      statutory_index_url: "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/INDEX.HTM"
+      other_statutory_types: "Chapter 31-3 separately authorises non-charity special plates that are not part of the charity program: § 31-3-15 (state officers and mayors), 31-3-16 (General Assembly), 31-3-17 (volunteer fire company), 31-3-17.1 (courtesy), 31-3-17.2 (civil defense), 31-3-17.3 (temporary), 31-3-17.4 (firefighter), 31-3-39 (amateur radio operator), 31-3-42 (camper), 31-3-43 (sheriffs' department), 31-3-44 (ambulance or rescue), 31-3-45 and 31-3-45.1 (police motorcycle and police), 31-3-46 (P.O.W.), 31-3-47 (judiciary), 31-3-48/48.1/48.2 (Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star), 31-3-53 (veterans'), plus four named-individual emeritus sections (31-3-49, 31-3-50, 31-3-51, 31-3-54, 31-3-56) — Rhode Island legislates plates for SPECIFIC NAMED PEOPLE, which no other state in this group does."
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://dmv.ri.gov/registrations-plates-titles/license-plates/charity-plates/currently-production  # RI DMV's own 'Currently in Production' charity plate list: the seventeen plates, each with its enabling R.I. Gen. Laws citation, the per-program character caps, the $43.50/$33.50/$10 fee structure, the per-plate vehicle-class restrictions, and the Doerflinger painting attribution. Read via the Wayback Machine (dmv.ri.gov returned 403 to direct fetches this pass)"
+      - "https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/INDEX.HTM  # the chapter index from which the non-charity special-plate sections above were enumerated, including the named-individual emeritus plates"
+    notes: >-
+      THE RHODE ISLAND SPECIALTY INDEX — seventeen produced programs, each with
+      its own statute, plus a second preorder tier. Two things to carry forward.
+      First, Rhode Island and Connecticut together establish that a
+      STATUTE-DERIVED specialty count is achievable in at least some states and is
+      strictly better than a gallery count: it is dated, versioned, PD, and
+      countable without fetching a DMV page that 403s. Second, the character caps
+      belong in the parse layer as a per-program constraint — a five-character
+      Rhode Island charity string is not merely short, it is evidence of WHICH
+      program, and with seventeen programs and two cap values that is a real, if
+      weak, discriminator.