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Why would this matter if you're just using the database?

It doesn’t, you are free to use ZeroFS for commercial and closed source products.

This clarification is helpful, thanks! The README currently implies a slightly different take, perhaps it could be made more clear that it's suitable for use unmodified in closed source products:

> The AGPL license is suitable for open source projects, while commercial licenses are available for organizations requiring different terms.

I was a bit unclear on where the AGPL's network-interaction clause draws its boundaries- so the commercial license would only be needed for closed-source modifications/forks, or if statically linking ZeroFS crate into a larger proprietary Rust program, is that roughly it?

Also worth noting (as a sibling comment pointed out) that despite these assurances the untested legal risks of AGPL-licensed code may still cause difficulties for larger, risk-averse companies. Google notably has a blanket policy [1] banning all AGPL code entirely as "the risks outweigh the benefits", so large organizations are probably another area where the commercial license comes into play.

[1] https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl...

> so the commercial license would only be needed for closed-source modifications/forks

Indeed.

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