🚨🚨🚨 License Violation Alert: Illegally Re-Licensing Google's Gemma Model as "Open Source"
Gemma, Google's model, is not under a permissive Apache 2.0 license. It's under the Gemma Terms of Use. These terms are "source-available" but restrictive. Crucially, they do not grant you the right to re-license the model. You can use it, modify it, and distribute your modifications, but you must do so under the same Gemma Terms.
By taking the Gemma weights, attaching them to CLIP, and slapping a new license (like Apache 2.0 or MIT) on the whole package, he is committing license misappropriation. He's claiming licensing authority over material (Google's weights) that he does not own and whose license does not allow for re-licensing.
What this means in practice:
- It's Invalid: The new license he placed is non-binding and void for the Gemma components. The Gemma parts are still strictly governed by Google's original terms. If anyone used his "Apache 2.0" model in a way that violated the Gemma Terms, they (and possibly he) could face legal action from Google.
- It's Misleading & Dangerous: It creates a false sense of freedom for users. Someone might see "Apache 2.0," think it's completely libre, and use it commercially in a way that breaches the Gemma Terms (e.g., not attributing properly, using it in a forbidden application), unknowingly incurring risk.
- The Correct Approach: The only legally sound way to release such a derived model is to keep the entire package under the original Gemma Terms of Use, clearly documenting that it's a derivative work of Gemma and that those terms apply. He can note that his original connector code is Apache 2.0, but the core model weights are not.
Thank you for the detailed breakdown. You are absolutely right I overlooked the license inheritance from the Gemma Terms of Use when setting the repository license. My intention was to share the learning process and the connector architecture, not to misrepresent the licensing of Google's weights. Next things i will try to update with this project phi 3 and qwen like model as they are fully free came with MIT license
I am currently updating the repository to reflect the correct Gemma Terms of Use and will explicitly state that the Apache 2.0 license applies only to my original adapter code. I appreciate you looking out for the community and helping me get this right!