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A downloadable model: what to review before deployment
Short answer
Downloading a model and permission for a specific way of using it are two separate questions. Before you order an app, describe who uses it, where the model runs and what the customer receives, then check the terms of the specific variant. One family can carry an Apache 2.0 licence, a Llama 3.1 licence and a non-commercial variant at once. An app on a local model costs from €3,000 net at Syntalith.
How we workDetails ↓
- 01Call30 minutes with an engineer, free
- 02PrototypeA working system on your process and data, free
- 03ImplementationTarget and fixed price in the contract; 50% at signing
- 04Acceptance50% once the agreed target is met
- model on your server or in the cloud in the EU
- quoted after the review
- same work in application with EU cloud model
- from €3,000
- task, data and equipment analysis
- €0
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Author: Syntalith · 3 min read
Statistics
Open models in companies: statistics 2026
3
different licences in one family of Polish PLLuM models: Apache 2.0, Llama 3.1 and non-commercial. A similar name does not mean the same terms.
20.0%
According to Eurostat (2025), 20.0% of EU companies with at least 10 employees used AI.
52.5%
According to Eurostat (2025), 52.5% of EU companies that considered AI and did not use it named a lack of clarity about the legal consequences.
392,716
According to GitHub (2026), the OpenClaw repository has 392,716 stars, and the project was created on 24 November 2025.
48.8%
According to Eurostat (2025), 48.8% of EU companies that considered AI and did not use it named concerns about data protection and privacy.
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
From an internal tool to a service for customers
A company tested a local model as help for its own employees. Now it wants to offer the feature to customers in a portal. That changes the way the model is used: other users, another product. The team describes this change to the person who assesses the terms, even if the model file stays the same.
A tool for your own employees
the model in the company's environment
a description of the users and where it runs
A feature in a customer portal
the same app, new users
a fresh assessment of the terms
Handing the model files to another company
distribution
separate licence terms
A useful description shows who uses the app, where the model runs and what the customer gets: only the output, a feature in the portal, or the model files. The description need not be a full specification. It must tell apart your own app that uses the model from handing its files to another party. The legal assessment belongs to the right person, and a model does not settle it in a chat.
The model card helps you find the material
Hugging Face describes the model card as the place for information on uses, limitations and metadata, including the licence. The person assessing it also needs the full terms the links lead to.
PLLuM-4B and 12B
Apache 2.0
Commercial use on the terms of that licence.
Llama-PLLuM 8B and 70B
Llama 3.1
The terms of the Llama 3.1 licence.
Variants marked -nc-
non-commercial
Research and private uses.
A similar family name does not mean the same terms, so record which model and which release the contractor's proposal covers. Downloading a file from a platform does not replace this check, and after a change of variant you check the licence again. If someone prepared a modified version, you need material on where it came from. The PLLuM variants are described in detail in the article on PLLuM in a company.
The model is not the only component
Other elements work in the app too: document reading, search, speech recognition, libraries and agent tools. According to GitHub (2026), the OpenClaw repository has 392,716 stars and an MIT licence, which shows how popular open agent components are. Each of them has its own terms. In the proposal, include the elements that will really be used, because choosing the language model alone does not close the conversation about the terms of the whole solution.
- The language model: name, release, card address and date checked
- The document-reading or speech model, if one is used
- The search engine and the vector database
- Libraries and agent tools
- External services, if data can reach them
Alternatives before you sign the order
If the company cannot accept the terms of the chosen model, compare another variant on the same task. The change does not mean giving up the app, but it needs a fresh quality test. An approved external service can be an alternative, if the data requirements allow it. For a simple task, such as copying known fields or finding a document by its number, a search engine or rules are enough, with no text generation. The technical scope should match the user's need, whatever the name of the model from the first trial.
What to agree with the contractor
Syntalith's work includes a list of the components under consideration and a comparison of the permitted variants on the company's task. The client names a person who will assess the terms, and the process owner checks the results. Also agree what happens when a component changes, so the person maintaining the app knows when a fresh assessment is needed. In our private LLM offer we combine choosing the model with a trial on the company's task. Describe who will use the planned app.
