Hey #devs I'm looking to publish an open source decentralised version of an existing free service on GitHub.
My agent is suggesting I need to make a licensing choice before I do this and is suggesting "AGPL-3.0 as it permits free personal and commercial use, including optional paid hosting services, while generally requiring modified hosted versions to remain open. That fits the decentralised/community ethos better than Apache-2.0, which permits closed proprietary forks."
But it is recommending I consult a solicitor before making my choice.
Is this an over cautious approach?
Is it normal to consult solicitors when publishing open source software on GitHub that have future freemium options available?
mike
npub1aq…c237n
2026-07-30 11:37:33 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1aqakd28d95muqlg6h6nwrvqq5925n354prayckr424k49vzjds4s0c237nSeen on
wss://relay.mostr.pubPublished at
2026-07-30 11:37:33 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "933660ba273f1f149fb14af66f3457cf99bdd7753a6c43b2addad30ff279ec13",
"pubkey": "e83b66a8ed2d37c07d1abea6e1b000a15549c69508fa4c5875556d52b0526c2b",
"created_at": 1785411453,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"devs"
]
],
"content": "Hey #devs I'm looking to publish an open source decentralised version of an existing free service on GitHub.\n\nMy agent is suggesting I need to make a licensing choice before I do this and is suggesting \"AGPL-3.0 as it permits free personal and commercial use, including optional paid hosting services, while generally requiring modified hosted versions to remain open. That fits the decentralised/community ethos better than Apache-2.0, which permits closed proprietary forks.\"\n\nBut it is recommending I consult a solicitor before making my choice.\n\nIs this an over cautious approach?\n\nIs it normal to consult solicitors when publishing open source software on GitHub that have future freemium options available?",
"sig": "eaecd63e5e993a8819cf667965b0f77746619675eaf8256a18390dda7762fa1d7cce2e72204689570db8f82e8a8dd3f79806b019c252e94e8e9075efa862266e"
}