SourceHut bans LLM-generated content in its terms of service
Changes to Sourcehut's terms of service regarding LLMs
SourceHut is updating its terms of service to prohibit original content written with or facilitating the use of LLMs and other generative AI. The decision follows community discussion and is driven by concerns about resource usage, ethics, climate impact, and the exploitation of open source. Enforcement will be case-by-case with a light touch, and mirrors of projects like Linux are still allowed.
It's not easy to argue that LLMs make free software better.
- Zambyte
Drew convinced me that we should abolish copyright through his blog[1][2]. I find it very unfortunate that he uses the copyright licenses of the software hosted on SourHut as an argument against LLMs. Abolishing copyright means abolishing copyright for everyone, even you. Even if you don't like what people do with their copies.
I also find the reference to the energy consumption of AI dated a year and a half ago to be extremely unconvincing. The efficiency gains in AI over the course of the last year have probably been unparalleled in any other era of computing. The model (Qwen 3.8 27b) that I run on my own hardware on a single, high end gaming GPU, is often compared to the state of the art, massive frontier model from the beginning of this year. There was literally no amount of money you could pay to any company to run the biggest, most energy hungry AI model in existence at the time that the reference was written, that would even compare to the quality you can get out of a single GPU now.
[1] https://drewdevault.com/blog/Alice-in-Wonderland/
[2] https://drewdevault.com/blog/Sustainable-creativity-post-cop...
- vnorilo
I use LLMs at work without much thought by now. I'm also contributing a little bit to Sourcehut and keep my personal projects there.
While I'm not necessarily in the "LLMs are evil" camp, I find I respect this position a lot. I wish more people would do what they feel is right, even if that's going to result in a backlash from those who disagree.
When it comes to my personal projects, I realize I haven't really touched many of them in the LLM age. In a way, AI has made me uninterested in programming. This might actually be a nice demarcation line: keep my free range organic code on sourcehut and actively not use AI for my personal stuff. After all, LLMs (may) mostly help with speed (sometimes) - which was never the issue for the stuff I create "just because".
- lycopodiopsida
I am a paying supporter and I am considering to stop paying. This policy is a) dumb b) unenforceable. I pay them for infrastructure and service, not for some pseudo-moral ideas about how I should write my code. My code is as little of their concern, as things happening in my own house.
- coder-pm
Hah, llm detection is unreliable so a ToS like that can’t be enforced that way… that change moves responsibility to contributors who will break it, what about the autocomplete, refactoring tools?
- lantry
> The new terms of service, which will go into effect for new projects after the usual two week notice period (i.e. September 10th), will now include the following under the list of prohibited content:
> - original content written with or which facilitates the use of LLMs (large language models) or other generative AI technologies
> The use of LLMs or other generative AI tools to produce or assist with the production of source code, assets, tickets, emails, and so on, will no longer be permitted on SourceHut once these terms take effect.
> As with our other policy changes, the intention is to roll this out slowly and thoughtfully. Each possible violation will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and we are open to making exceptions.