Booklore Self-Hosted E-Book Library Sparks Licensing Controversy

Initial Impressions of Booklore

I first got to know about Booklore when it was a fresh new player in the scene, trying to be a modern alternative to Calibre Web. The platform aimed at being a self-hosted way to handle your e-book library, complete with a slick and modern user interface. It looked promising at first, especially for those wanna’ keep things in house, without needing third-party hosting services. But, like a lot of new projects, it didn’t take long before some red flags began to showed up.

Community Concerns and Code Quality

On Reddit, some users started raising questions about the quality of code behind Booklore. There were comments suggesting that much of it might be vibe-coded—quick, informal, and perhaps not the most structured coding practices. Judging by the frequent commits, it’s clear the developer was actively pushing updates, but that doesn’t always means the code is solid. And the risk of vibe coding for an app meant to handle important libraries could be problematic. Poor coding sometimes leads to issues like data loss or corruption, especially if the app deletes a database with a simple mistake. For those storing a big collection of ebooks, this is pretty concerning.

License Changes and Community Feedback

Another thing that stirred controversy was the licensing. Initially, Booklore was released under an AGPL license, which is open source. But then, there were whispers about a switch to a BSL license—a license that gives the project sponsor more control, including the ability to publish contributions under non-open-source terms without consulting contributors or getting their permission. This felt like a breach of trust for many community members. Plus, the developer’s handling of the situation on Discord didn’t sit well with everyone, as they did not acknowledge the community’s contributions properly.

Privacy and User Control Issues

There were also worries about privacy; namely, telemetry data being sent to servers owned by the developer, despite users opting out of the feature. Although later updates seem to have addressed this, it was a source of frustration early-on. And let’s not forget a paywall feature—those attempting to download multiple books from their own library found themselves blocked, which upset a lot of users who thought they were in control of their own data. Such limitations can easily make users reconsider whether the software is really worth using.

Uninstalling and Final Thoughts

When I finally removed Booklore from my setup, I noticed something odd. All the permissions on my e-book files on my Unraid server had been changed to d–x–x–x, blocking me from moving or deleting my books without adjusting permissions manually. This is not just inconvenient, but also a potential risk for data security. Changing those permissions was straightforward, but the experience confirmed that, for me, removing it was the best move. The whole controversy, combined with the technical issues, made it clear that I needed a more reliable solution for my library management needs.