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rcr-anti • today at 2:26 PM • 9 replies • view on HN

It's not open weight, it's weights available as they use a modified MIT license that is not OSI. It's the common "if you're serving it as a business you need a license" difference, for what it's worth.


Replies

Taek • today at 2:40 PM

Everyone that I know considers something to be 'open weight' if the weights are available to the public in some form or another.

In other words, I don't think there's anything misleading happening in the title. When most people discover that certain restrictions exist on using the weights, they will neither be surprised nor disappointed, because the main thing that's being advertised - the weights are available for download - is true!

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dcss_gardener • today at 2:32 PM

Where did you get this definition of open weight and who else uses it? The weights are published. Open source is already its own more restrictive category. What would you prefer we call this kind of release?

"Weights available" does not seem to be in wide use and doesn't, to me, communicate anything different than "open weights."

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dannyw • today at 2:42 PM

"The requirements set forth in Section 2 do not apply to: (a) internal use of the Model or its derivative works, defined as any use that does not make the Model or its derivative works available to third parties, [...]"

Works for me. I can host it, I can run it, I can use it; but if I want to sell access to it as an inference provider, I'd have to get a license.

The economics of open-weight models has always been shaky. It's not an OSI license yes, but metaphorically it's kinda like AGPL.

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xyzzy_plugh • today at 2:40 PM

Raw license text:

https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-Large-4-1T-A52B/raw...

Very much not open as in open source. It's a shame an organization such as OSI doesn't get out ahead of licensing of weights, what do we call this? "Weights Available" ?

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asgeirn • today at 2:48 PM

Specifically, if you're serving it as a "Model as a Service" business you need a license. Other uses do not.

contravariant • today at 3:02 PM

It's always a bit unclear to me to what extent you're bound by a copyright when you're not distributing a work.

If someone sends me a copy while fully adhering to the license, what right does someone have to tell me what I can do with it? If I buy a book do I not have a right to read it? Lend it to people?

It's probably a good thing libraries already existed pre modern copyright.

rat9988 • today at 2:40 PM

I think this open debate depends on who you talk to. Not all the people agree with this vision.

sigmar • today at 2:51 PM

Meh, that's more of a website ToS than an enforceable license. These weights weren't human authored and lack copyright. the enforceability of these terms are tantamount to a website ToS because Mistral would have to rely on contract law.

wang_li • today at 3:15 PM

You think copyright applies in this industry? The AI companies certainly don't think it does.