Why WebBrain 33.0.0 is GPL

WebBrain 33.0.0 is GPL-3.0-or-later. Tagged releases before that stay MIT.

Apocalypse Mode's Wikipedia reader needed real full-text search over ZIM archives, not just title lookup. The working way to query the Xapian index inside those files, in a browser, is libzim compiled to WebAssembly. That runtime is GPL. Once it is bundled and wired into the Chrome and Firefox packages, the combined work has to ship under compatible GPL terms. A settings toggle that hides Apocalypse Mode does not change the license of what was distributed.

GPL-3.0-or-later is the version because javascript-libzim is GPL-3.0-or-later while libzim and Xapian are GPL-2.0-or-later, and "or later" lets both move up. GPL-3.0 also stays compatible with Apache-2.0 libraries we already ship.

The MCP server and LM Studio plugin remain MIT. Third-party files keep their own notices. Each 33.x release publishes corresponding source for the bundled Wasm. The longer record is in the licensing decision.