Proposal: Transitioning reitti’s License from MIT to AGPL-3.0 for Version 5.0

[dgraf-gh]

Hi everyone!

First of all, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed to reitti. We are currently gearing up for our next major milestone: Version 5.0! I’m incredibly proud of how far this project has come, and your discussions, bug reports, and code contributions are the reason we’ve made it this far.

As we prepare for this major release, I want to discuss an important step for the long-term future of the project: changing our open-source license from MIT to AGPL-3.0 (GNU Affine General Public License v3.0).

Since this change affects existing code, I need to ask all past contributors for their formal approval. Please read through this proposal and share your thoughts, or give your "thumbs up" below!

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Why are we proposing this change?

When reitti started, the MIT license was a great fit for quickly getting the project off the ground. It is lightweight and highly permissive. However, as we scale and approach a major milestone like v5.0, the MIT license presents some risks to the community we’ve built together:

1. No Requirement to Give Back: Under the MIT license, any individual or corporation can take the code we all worked hard on, modify it, and turn it into a closed-source, paid product. They are under no obligation to share their improvements with us.
2. The "SaaS Loophole": Standard copyleft licenses (like GPL) only require people to share their modified code if they distribute the software (e.g., selling an installer). Because reitti is a web-based/self-hosted application, someone could easily host a modified version of it on their own servers as a paid cloud service without ever releasing their changes to our community.

Why AGPL-3.0?

The AGPL-3.0 license is specifically designed to solve these issues for modern, network-based software.

• Protecting Our Collective Work: It ensures that any modifications made to reitti must remain open-source. If a third party uses our code to offer a service over a network, they must release their modified source code under the same license.
• Fostering a Strong Ecosystem: It guarantees that if anyone builds amazing features on top of reitti, those improvements will flow back into our community, benefiting everyone.
• Keeping it Free: For our users who self-host reitti for personal use, absolutely nothing changes. It remains entirely free.

To put it simply: AGPL-3.0 ensures that reitti will always remain open-source, and that no one can commercialize your contributions behind closed doors.

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A Note on Monetization

To be completely transparent, I want to assure you that I have absolutely no plans to monetize reitti now or in the future.

There are two main reasons for this:

1. I simply don't see a commercial fit for a project like this. it is, and should remain, a labor of love.
2. Operating a paid, hosted tracking service in Europe and Germany comes with incredibly strict data protection laws (like GDPR). Navigating these privacy regulations as a commercial service is a massive administrative headache that I have zero interest in taking on.

My goal is to keep reitti as a privacy-focused, community-driven project. Changing to AGPL-3.0 simply ensures that no one else can take our work and turn it into a closed, paid product either.

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What does this mean for you as a Contributor?

Because you hold the copyright to the code you have contributed to reitti, I cannot unilaterally change the license of your existing code. I need your explicit consent to re-license your contributions under AGPL-3.0.

How to cast your vote:

If you have contributed code to the reitti repository, please reply to this thread with one of the following:

• "I agree" (or a simple 👍 reaction) if you are happy to re-license your past and future contributions under AGPL-3.0.
• "I have concerns" followed by your thoughts. I want this to be an open conversation, so please share any questions or hesitation you might have!
  (If you have concerns but prefer to discuss them privately, feel free to email me directly at daniel@dedicatedcode.com).

(Mentioning past contributors here: @sne11ius, @stefanlinden, @tomekrzymyszkiewicz , @rodrigomescua , @GunseiKPaseri , @ccidecio , @ChillWithMill , @LinFei83 , @Dimarom4 , @christian-ho , @crazz , @VMGPDev , @Xapitonov , @sdreger , @hashworks , @tmdqja75 , @hckuo0112 , @SantosSi , @nilssonalex , @Terrance , @dragonfly8677 , @AntiApple4life , @jsixface , @Jonsen94 , @sieren , @wjansenw , @subha0319 )

Please note: Translations remain MIT

This license change applies strictly to our software's functional codebase. All contributed translations and localization files will remain under the original MIT license. This ensures our translations remain highly accessible and easily reusable across other open projects.

Because the GitHub UI does not easily distinguish between code accomplishments and translation contributions at a glance, I might not always notice who contributed what. If you only contributed translations, you can absolutely still vote "I agree" to approve the overall change, or you can simply reply to let me know that your contribution was translation-only so we can keep it under MIT.

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Timeline & Next Steps

We want to make sure everyone has plenty of time to read this and respond.

• We will keep this discussion open for 2 weeks until 22.06.2026.
• If we receive unanimous agreement from our active contributors, we will officially update the LICENSE file in the repository to coincide with the Version 5.0 release.
• If you have any questions about how AGPL-3.0 works, please ask them below or reach out to me in private via daniel@dedicatedcode.com.

Thank you again for making reitti what it is today. Let's protect its future together as we head into v5.0!

Best,
Daniel

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FAQ & Technical Details

What is the difference between MIT and AGPL-3.0?

Here is a quick breakdown of how the rules change:

Feature	MIT (Current)	AGPL-3.0 (Proposed)
Can anyone use reitti for free?	Yes	Yes
Can anyone self-host reitti?	Yes	Yes
Can someone modify the code for personal use?	Yes	Yes
Can someone modify the code, host it as a service, and keep their changes secret?	Yes	No (They must open-source their changes)
Does it protect contributors from having their work stolen?	No	Yes

Does AGPL-3.0 restrict personal self-hosting?

Not at all. If you run reitti at home or on a private VPS for yourself, your family, or your friends, you do not need to share anything. The copyleft requirements are only triggered if you modify the code and allow public users to interact with your modified version over a network.

[LinFei83]

I agree LF ***@***.***

[jsixface]

I agree

[dgraf-gh]

Quick reminder for anyone not already put their vote into this.

5 days to go.

Right now, I will switch to AGPL on the 22.06 and create the first beta of the 5.0 release.

Thank you for anyone already putting their vote in. You are all awesome :)

[sieren]

👍