The license of this model doesn't seem to be valid

#7
by Stealcase - opened

Hey,
Was reading the documentation and noticed this disclaimer.
Disclaimer. The license on this model does not constitute legal advice. We are not responsible for the actions of third parties who use this model. Please cosult an attorney before using this model for commercial purposes

Isn't the whole POINT of a license to make some sort of Copyright legal claim that you have the necessary rights to license out a model, and are engaging in a legally binding activity?

AFAIK, a license is a legal document. So of course it's not legal "advice", but it is legally binding πŸ˜….

But from my perspective, the Apache 2.0 license was never applied to this model, because you never included the Apache 2.0 license inside this repo. That seems to be a requisite for the Apache 2.0 license, or specifying exactly what part of the repo is under Apache 2.0 using very specific formatting.

Since you did neither, I don't think anyone could really claim this model was ever under apache-2.0.
I know this is not a "norm" on HuggingFace (but it IS a norm on Github), and might seem trivial, but to me it is significant.

How to apply the Apache License to your work. Include a copy of the Apache License, typically in a file called LICENSE, in your work, and consider also including a NOTICE file that references the License.
https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html

At best, you have "tagged" the model with Apache 2.0 in the HuggingFace system, and written in a readme that it is (but using the wrong formatting), so that hardly seems like a legally binding act.

Just my 2 cents, since you seem to have dug yourself into a bit of a bind of desiring to license correctly, but think you're not able to.

jfrankle changed discussion status to closed

I see this discussion was closed by @jfrankle after 2.5 hours with no comment or reason stated, which feels pretty... rude I guess?

Since it hides the discussion and basically makes it harder for people to write their opinions.

I'll clarify the issue again: The license on this repo is not valid. it is not a valid Apache-2.0 license because the repo itself does not follow the requirements of apache-2.0, so you might as well use the intended license you switched to in https://huggingface.co/mosaicml/mpt-7b-storywriter/commit/6a60d6b2df9e354570445b58a8a5813a9bd6d0b1

Stealcase changed discussion status to open
jfrankle changed discussion status to closed
Mosaic ML, Inc. org
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edited May 6, 2023

Closing this issue as "won't change."

deleted

You should consider changing the license from Apache 2.0 to custom MIT, it will most likely better address your company's legal line.

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