Llama 2 Community License Guide

SPDX Identifier: Llama-2 (unofficial)

What Is the Llama 2 Community License?

The Llama 2 Community License is a proprietary license that Meta released in 2023 together with the Llama 2 language model.

Llama Model Lineage

Why a “Community License”?

Meta describes this license as follows:

• Encouraging community innovation: Most developers and companies can use it freely
• Checking large corporations: Restricting exclusive use by Big Tech
• Responsible AI: Preventing harmful use

700 Million Scale Restriction

Definition of MAU (Monthly Active Users)

Monthly active users: the number of unique users who used the product/service in the previous calendar month

Examples:

Scenario 1: T phone app (MAU 5 million)
Since the MAU is fewer than 700 million, it can be used freely.

Scenario 2: Facebook (MAU 3 billion)
Since the MAU is 700 million or more, a separate license must be requested from Meta.

Services Exceeding the 700 Million Threshold

Services with 700 million or more MAU worldwide:

• Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp (Meta)
• YouTube (Google)
• TikTok
• WeChat

Most companies are not affected

When the Scale Restriction Applies

It applies continuously from the time of license agreement and after use begins.

Important: What happens if you start below 700 million but later exceed it? At the point of exceeding it, you must notify Meta and negotiate a separate license.

Permitted Items (MAU Fewer Than 700 Million)

What You Can Do Freely

1. Commercial use

   • Providing paid services
   • Selling APIs
   • Integrating into products

2. Model modification

   • Fine-tuning
   • Quantization (4-bit, 8-bit)
   • Model merging

3. Model distribution

   • Releasing derivative models
   • Uploading to Hugging Face, etc.
   • Including in open source projects

4. Use of generated outputs

   • Commercial use of AI-generated text

Prohibited Items (Acceptable Use Policy)

Llama 2 cannot be used for the following purposes:

1. Illegal Activities

• Supporting criminal acts
• Trading illegal goods
• Terrorist activities

2. Child Protection

• Child abuse content
• Child grooming

3. Discrimination and Hate

• Generating discriminatory content
• Hate speech
• Harassment

4. Violence and Danger

• Inciting violence
• Encouraging self-harm or suicide
• Weapons manufacturing

5. Privacy Violations

• Unauthorized collection of personal information
• Stalking, surveillance

6. Disinformation

• Intentional fake news
• Fraudulent content

7. High-Risk Domains (Sole Decision-Making)

• Medical diagnosis
• Legal advice
• Financial advice
• Emergency services

Prohibition on Training Competing LLMs with Llama 2

As a distinctive clause, you cannot use Llama 2 to train an LLM that competes with Meta.

Prohibited examples:

• Training a new LLM with the outputs of Llama 2
• Distillation using Llama 2 as a teacher model

Permitted examples:

• Fine-tuning Llama 2 itself
• Using the outputs of Llama 2 as a dataset (for a specific task)

Use Scenarios

Permitted Uses

1. Customer Service Chatbot

Scenario: A telecom customer consultation chatbot
MAU: 10 million
Judgment: Allowed (fewer than 700 million)

2. B2B AI Solution

Scenario: An enterprise document summarization solution
MAU: 100 thousand
Judgment: Allowed

3. Mobile App AI Feature

Scenario: A photo caption generation app
MAU: 5 million
Judgment: Allowed

Restricted Uses

1. Large-Scale Social Media

Scenario: Integration into social media with 1 billion MAU
Judgment: A Meta license is required

2. Training a Competing LLM

Scenario: Training a new LLM with Llama 2 outputs
Judgment: Prohibited

Requires Review

1. Global Service Expansion

Scenario: Currently 50 million MAU, with a future target of 1 billion
Judgment: Consultation with Meta is required before reaching 700 million

Licensing of Derivative Models

Mandatory Requirements

1. Attribution

   • Indicate “Based on Llama 2”
   • State it in the model card

2. License propagation

   • Apply the same Acceptable Use Policy
   • Maintain the 700 million scale restriction

3. Restriction on Meta trademark use

   • Unauthorized use of the “Llama” trademark is prohibited
   • The expression “Built with Llama 2” is OK

Derivative Model Examples

Permitted names:

• “MyModel (based on Llama 2)”
• “CustomLLM-Llama2-7B”

Prohibited names:

• “Llama 2 Pro”
• “Meta Llama Custom”

Llama 3 Update

Llama 3, released in April 2024, uses an updated license:

• Similar basic structure
• Some improvements to the use restriction clauses
• The 700 million scale restriction is maintained

The same guide applies when using Llama 3.

References

• Llama 2 Community License Full Text
• Llama 2 Acceptable Use Policy
• Llama 2 Model Card
• Meta AI Official Blog