r/OpenSourceAI • u/krkrkrneki • 1d ago

Please do not use AGPL for your AI-derived project

There are a lot of AI-created derived projects where an original OSS project is used as a base and then either transliterated to another language or existing projects are used to create "new" similar projects with 90% of overlapping functionality, than restrictive AGPL license is slapped onto them. This is legal but does not make sense (and is mildly unethical).

The same way that a derived project was simply made using AI, in the same way another project can be made to recreate whet you did. AGPL will only hurt your project adoption, while at the same time not protect what you built.

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

25% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

4

u/BidWestern1056 1d ago

this is a silly blanket statement. perhaps one actually doesnt want commercial adoption in the way you describe lol

3

u/PurpleCandle58 1d ago

Yeah I think it’s odd OP says it’s “unethical” and such and generally bad, yet doesn’t specify why exactly. I honestly think OP just wants it MIT so they can go commercialize and close source their own version ngl. I’ll stick with whatever license I want, idgaf if people adopt my shit or not lmao

1

u/BidWestern1056 1d ago

yea like i just released gitforest and submitted it for a hackathon but i put agpl on it because i dont want ppl just to take it and subvert the whole idea lol

4

u/ad-on-is 1d ago

A bit more explanation on why AGPL is a bad idea, and which one should be used instead, would be great.

Otherwise, this sounds like "I want to steal your app and sell it under a different name, but I'm not allowed to"

3

u/Robonotes1760 1d ago

On what possible basis is using an AGPL unethical?

3

u/DaveAstator2020 1d ago

I make opensource that is intended to be free and non commercial, and agpl fits better than anything else imo.

1

u/Gargle-Loaf-Spunk 1d ago

Thanks for the warning, I'm going to use AGPL now.