Does vibero violate the AGPL-3.0 license of zotero?

tongzhan
I recently came across a tool called "Vibero" (https://vibero.dev/) that appears to be built on Zotero and offers AI-powered features. However, it's not open-source and requires a subscription to access its AI functions. I'm wondering if this violates Zotero's AGPL-3.0 license?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    It does, and we've contacted them to ask that they remedy this.
  • tongzhan
    Actually, I'm curious—how can an "AI-enhanced Zotero" like this work legally? The AI features obviously aren't free, and, as they say, only an API key is not enough for complex layouts generated by AI. Is there a compliant way to do it?
  • adamsmith
    Really hard to say in the abstract. You can do a _lot_ with API keys. You can pair a FLOSS Zotero fork with a closed source AI server for which people have to pay (beaver.ai, the Zotero plugin, does roughly that). There are also likely some grey areas in how far the virality of GPL licenses extends.
    But what you very clearly can't do is build a closed source app on top of Zotero (or any other [A]GPL tool) and distribute it.
  • tongzhan
    That's true.
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