[samhclark]

You can, but they ask that you contact them to set up a contract. It's addressed here on the site:

>Anubis is provided to the public for free in order to help advance the common good. In return, we ask (but not demand, these are words on the internet, not word of law) that you not remove the Anubis character from your deployment.

>If you want to run an unbranded or white-label version of Anubis, please contact Xe to arrange a contract.

https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/funding

[pentagrama]

Thanks for the information. Just to confirm, with the stock deployment it is not possible to remove the character, but there is an option to set the interface language for users? Spanish is supported?

[xena]

I think the project is now mature enough for i18n, I've been putting it off because adding it ossifies a lot of the design but I think it's ready now.

[lytedev]

My "workaround" for this MIT-licensed software that does not allow me a simple and common customization was to have my reverse proxy redirect requests to the images. https://git.lyte.dev/lytedev/nix/pulls/92/files

Hope this is useful to others!

[willriches]

If you're going to break the social contract, just do so. Jumping through hoops to complicate the matter doesn't solve anything.

[lytedev]

I did so, though I would hardly call using MIT FOSS for my personal projects a breach of the social contract of open source. This was easier than forking, building a docker image, etc. I'm guessing it will be much easier for others, too, since the recommended config has you dink around with reverse proxy configuration no matter what.

[idle_zealot]

You are breaking the social contract of the project, not the legal one. The MIT license is the legal contract. The additional social contract is established by the author asking (without legal teeth) that you not do exactly what you did by removing the branding.

Compare to a take-a-penny-leave-a-penny tray from an era past. You are legally allowed to scoop up all the pennies into a bag, and leave the store, then repeat at the neighboring store, and make a few bucks. You'd be an asshole, but not face legal trouble. You "followed the rules" to the letter. But guess what? If you publish an easy how-to guide with "one weird trick" for making some quick cash, and people start adopting your antisocial behavior and emptying out change trays, you've forced the issue and now either a) businesses will stop offering this convenience or b) the rules around it will be tightened and the utility will be degraded. In the concrete case of Anubis, the maintainers may decide to stop contributing their time to this useful software or place a non-FOSS license on it in an attempt to stop gain-maximizing sociopaths from exploiting their efforts.

[xena]

To be fair, I'm not angry, I just think they're a coward because the UN kept the anime mascot intact. https://policytoolbox.iiep.unesco.org/

I even it out by how I prioritize feature requests, bug reports, and the like :)

[lytedev]

I'm surprised to read this from you, somebody I and many others hold in high regard as accepting and knowledgeable, insulting someone's character because they didn't like some specific aspect of your work or opinions or chose to ignore an ask in this particular use case.

I didn't implement this out of fear or some lack of courage. In fact I had the original avatars up for quite a while. I simply wanted my own logo so visitors wouldn't be potentially confused. It seemed to fit the use case and there was no way to achieve what I wanted without reaching out. I didn't feel comfortable bugging you or anybody on account of my tiny little no-traffic git forge even though, yes, that is what you politely asked for (and did not demand).

I think if you do feel this strongly you might consider changing the software's license or the phrasing of the request in the documentation. Or perhaps making it very clear that no matter how small, you want to be reached out to for the whitelabel version.

I think the success story of Anubis has been awesome to read about and follow and seeing how things unfold further will be fun to watch and possibly even contribute to. I'm personally rooting for you and your project!

[lytedev]

You are correct in that I ignored a specific request, but you are also ignoring the larger social contract of open source that is also at play. To release software with a certain license has a social component of its own that seems to be unaccounted for here.

Your analogy to me seems imprecise, as analogies tend to be when it comes to digital goods. I'm not taking pennies in any sense here, preventing the next person from making use of some public good.

You can make a similar argument for piracy or open source, and yet... Here we all still are and open source has won for the most part.

[CaptainFever]

I think back to the original idea of free software.

The GPL protects users from any restrictions the author wants to use. No additional restrictions are allowed, whether technical or legal.

In this case, the restriction is social, but is a restriction nonetheless (some enforce it by harassment, some by making you feel bad).

But you could ignore it, even fork it and create a white label version, and be proud of it (thereby bypassing the restriction). Donate voluntarily if you want to contribute, without being restricted technically, legally, or socially.

[jezek2]

And the author is breaking a social contract of not shoving stuff I don't want to see in an excessive amount (or being a contributor of it). Before I wouldn't mind to see some anime here or there, it's quite cute for most people. But lately I see it in much more places and more aggressive.

Some project even took it to the next level and displayed a furry porn. I think anime and furry graphics are related, esp. in the weird obsession of the people to shove it to the unsuspecting people, but since it's "cute" it's passable. Well unless it gets into the porn territory.

On the other hand I applaud the author for an interesting variation of making the free product slightly degraded so people are incentived to donate money. The power of defaults and their misuse.

Personally I'm not fan of enshittification of any kind even a slight one even when it's to my own detriment.

[pjerem]

> And the author is breaking a social contract of not shoving stuff I don't want to see in an excessive amount.

Except the author is not shoving any stuff at you. Author doesn't owe anything to you and can do whatever they want and you doesn't owe the author the obligation to use their software.

It's not business, it's a person giving something free to the world and asking people who uses it to play the game. You can chose to not play the game or to not use it, but you can't act like your issue with an anime character is the author's fault. Just don't install it on your server and go ahead.

[Philpax]

> Some project even took it to the next level and displayed a furry porn. I think anime and furry graphics are related, esp. in the weird obsession of the people to shove it to the unsuspecting people, but since it's "cute" it's passable. Well unless it gets into the porn territory.

This is your weird association and hang-up. That's on you to deal with, not Anubis or the rest of the internet.

[otterley]

This is a very innovative way to earn a living with open source! Make the free version sickeningly cutesy (no offense to the author intended), and charge for the professional-looking version. No change in functionality, just chrome.

[xena]

I am actually working on changing functionality for paid customers, it's just access to a bigger database of default rules and IP reputation tracking.

[otterley]

I wish you best of luck! You're a very talented developer and artist. I'd be thrilled to work with you someday.

[xena]

Thanks! I'll be sure to post through it either way. My failure condition is going back to work somewhere else, so worst case it'll be more likely to happen :)

Really though my dayjob kinda burns me out because I have to focus on AEO, which is SEO but for AI. I get by making and writing about cool things, but damn does it hurt having to write for machines instead of humans.