Open source
Licensed for the public archive.
Mond is an open-source project created to improve metadata quality for public book archives. Every approved contribution becomes part of a freely available dataset that anyone can inspect, improve, or build upon.
GNU Affero General Public License v3
Mond is released under the GNU AGPL v3. Any modifications deployed as a network service must also be made available under the same license.
- License AGPL-3.0
- Source available
- Commercial use allowed
- Modification allowed
- Distribution allowed
- Patent grant included
- Network copyleft required
— Why AGPL —
A license chosen for durability.
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Keeps improvements open
Every change to Mond — bug fix, feature, or refinement — must remain available under the same license.
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Prevents closed hosted forks
Unlike permissive licenses, the AGPL applies even when the software is run as a network service. Hosted forks cannot go dark.
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Protects community contributions
The work of contributors and moderators can never be enclosed inside a proprietary product.
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Ensures transparency
Anyone can read the exact code that validates, reviews, and publishes every mapping in the dataset.
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Encourages collaboration
Forks, experiments, and derivatives are welcome — as long as they give their improvements back.
— Philosophy —
Built for preservation,
not ownership.
Metadata is a common good. The record of which book is which — its editions, its identifiers, its provenance — should never belong to a single company or server. Mond publishes its entire dataset openly, so that the catalog can outlive any one host, and so that no one has to ask permission to know what a book is.
The people who build this archive deserve to be seen. Every mapping carries its attribution, and every moderation decision is recorded in the open. Trust in an archive is not declared — it is earned through transparency, one reviewed record at a time.
Anyone can read the source, audit the process, file an issue, or fork the project entirely. The AGPL guarantees that this remains true forever. Mond exists to preserve knowledge — not to become proprietary infrastructure around it.
“What is freely given should stay freely given.”
github.com/cardinalune/mond
Source code, issue tracker, documentation, roadmap, and contribution guidelines.
Official License Text
The complete GNU Affero General Public License v3 is included with every copy of Mond. This page provides a summary only. For the legally binding license text, read the official LICENSE file included in the repository.
This summary is provided for convenience and is not legal advice.