Interview with Lev Bannov, CEO at ONLYOFFICE, on the Euro-Office situation

Lev Bannov, CEO at ONLYOFFICE, shares his views on the recent launch of Euro-Office. Read his personal commentary on open source, licensing, and protecting brand integrity.

Gentlemen, we are all civilized people. I’d like to personally address Frank Karlitschek from Nextcloud and the IONOS team – what are you doing?

Let me share an analogy. In 2005, I found myself in Dubai, standing in a long line for taxis at a hotel. My colleagues and I unintentionally ended up in the middle of the line, and the taxi drivers at the front said to us, “Gentlemen, you brought civilization to us, but what are you doing now?” We understood, apologized, and moved back in line. This story illustrates a simple truth: whether in daily life or business, respecting order and each other’s work is fundamental.

The same principle applies to the working processes. Whether you’re a writer or a programmer, we all create. Those who write the words or code own the work. According to established international rules, if someone wants to use or republish another’s work, they must first seek permission. To streamline this process in software development, standard licenses were created, as well as open ones.

Over a decade ago, when we began publishing the ONLYOFFICE code, we studied the licenses thoroughly, including the open-source ones. We liked the AGPL v3 license because its 7th clause allows us to ensure that our code retains its original attributes, so that users are able to clearly identify the developers and the brand behind the program. So, we chose this license for ONLYOFFICE.

We originally outlined our branding and attribution requirements directly in the code and later incorporated them into the license text. These additional conditions were implemented on May 25, 2021, and can be found at line 655 of the License. This addition aligns with the AGPL license, and we firmly believe it respects its terms.

In the last ten years, this approach has worked well. Numerous partners and projects have seamlessly integrated ONLYOFFICE, either maintaining its open-source nature and honoring our branding or obtaining commercial licenses when offering the software under their own brand.

Several days ago, we learned that Nextcloud and IONOS launched a new project called Euro-Office which uses ONLYOFFICE’s code for the document editors. We see this as a compliment to our work. It means our product is recognized as the best foundation. But to our great regret, we discovered that they removed all references to our brand/attribute as required by our license.

The core issue here isn’t just about what the AGPL license states, but about the additional provisions we, as the authors, have included. This is a critical distinction, even if some may argue otherwise. We firmly assert that the Euro-Office project is currently infringing on our copyright in a deliberate and unacceptable manner.

If the Euro-Office team believes our approach conflicts with the AGPLv3 license, we invite them to submit an official request to FSF (Free Software Foundation) for review. Let the respected open-source community evaluate the situation and provide a decision. If FSF determines that our license and project align with AGPLv3, we will continue as an open-source initiative. However, if the decision goes against us, we are ready to consider other options.

As the creators of ONLYOFFICE, we want to make our position unequivocally clear: we do not grant anyone the right to remove our branding or alter our open-source code without proper attribution. This principle is non-negotiable and will never change. We demand that the Euro-Office project either restore our branding and attributions or roll back all forks of our project, refraining from using our code without proper acknowledgment of ONLYOFFICE.

Striving for mutual understanding,

Lev Bannov

P.S. This comment was made by Lev Bannov, CEO of ONLYOFFICE, and written at 13:40 PM on March 30, 2026, Istanbul time.