The Open WebUI project, which develops a platform for deploying large language models on its own hardware and interacting with them via a web interface, has switched to a restrictive license that prohibits renaming. Initially, the project was supplied under a BSD-3 license, but starting with the release of 0.6.6, restrictive changes were added to the license text. In addition, the project introduced a mandatory signing of an agreement on the transfer of property rights for community participants wishing to transfer their changes.
When installing or distributing copies of Open WebUI, the user is now required to preserve the original branding, name, and logo. The only exceptions are for developers who submitted changes before the license change, commercial license holders, and installations that have fewer than 50 users per month. These conditions do not meet the criteria for an open OSI license, so the project can now be considered proprietary, despite the word "Open" in its name. Code released before version 0.6.6 remains under the BSD license.
However, the Open WebUI developers do not believe that the change made the project proprietary. The requirement to preserve the brand is presented as a copyleft-like protection aimed at combating abuse and dishonest vendors who pass off someone else's work as their own product. Otherwise, the project retains all rights provided by the BSD license, such as the ability to distribute, modify, and fork. When creating a fork or custom edition based on the code base after version 0.6.6, it is required to preserve the brand elements and indicate that the product is an unofficial fork. Mention of Open WebUI must be clear and visible. Claims that a third-party edition is developed with the approval of the Open WebUI project or with its participation are prohibited.
It is noted that the reason for changing the license was abuses by some consumers, who simply removed references to the code's connection with the Open WebUI project, passed off the result as a new development and tried to sell it as their own product. Also, parasitic intermediaries formed around the project, misleading users and promoting their assemblies as official editions of Open WebUI, supported by the developers of the original project. In case of problems, the creators of such modifications shifted the support work to the main project, without contributing to the common cause and without participating in the development.
Source: opennet.ru
