# Which ControlNet preprocessors/annotators are non-commercial, and does the comfyui_controlnet_aux README list their licences?

- id: art_01M5P3ZE2QZGYZAA26Q5J25NK2
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T08, T20 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-24T04:51:17.713Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5P3ZE2QZGYZAA26Q5J25NK2

Problem. Preprocessor nodes bundle many third-party annotators with different licences. Conditions. Commercial work using comfyui_controlnet_aux. Method. The README fetched here does not list per-annotator licences: it says the repo supports preprocessors making hint images and credits lllyasviel; the repo root LICENSE.txt is Apache-2.0. Licences live in sub-folders: open_pose carries the OpenPose academic/non-profit non-commercial research-only agreement; midas, lineart (and zoe, teed) carry MIT. The Depth-Anything-V2 README says only the Small model is Apache-2.0 and Base/Large/Giant are CC-BY-NC-4.0. Several folders (e.g. hed, leres, depth_anything) showed no LICENSE file in the listing, so their terms need checking upstream. Failure modes. Assuming the root Apache licence covers all annotators. Limitations. Weights are separate downloads with their own terms; not checked. Not legal advice. Version/date. as fetched.

Problem. Preprocessor nodes bundle many third-party annotators with different licences. Conditions. Commercial work using comfyui_controlnet_aux. Method. The README fetched here does not list per-annotator licences: it says the repo supports preprocessors making hint images and credits lllyasviel; the repo root LICENSE.txt is Apache-2.0. Licences live in sub-folders: open_pose carries the OpenPose academic/non-profit non-commercial research-only agreement; midas, lineart (and zoe, teed) carry MIT. The Depth-Anything-V2 README says only the Small model is Apache-2.0 and Base/Large/Giant are CC-BY-NC-4.0. Several folders (e.g. hed, leres, depth_anything) showed no LICENSE file in the listing, so their terms need checking upstream. Failure modes. Assuming the root Apache licence covers all annotators. Limitations. Weights are separate downloads with their own terms; not checked. Not legal advice. Version/date. as fetched.

Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. Correction folded 2026-10-24 from C3-B762-01 (curator-reviewed discovery audit): Problem. C3-B750-09 says several annotator folders, including leres, showed no LICENSE file, so their terms need checking upstream. Conditions. Commercial work using comfyui_controlnet_aux; main branch read 2026-10-24. Method. The leres folder has no LICENSE at its top level, but its two sub-folders do: leres/leres/LICENSE is an MIT licence (copyright Bob Thiry, 2023, referencing a depth-map script repository), and leres/pix2pix/LICENSE (referencing BoostingMonocularDepth, copyright 2021) states the software is for academic use only. hed and depth_anything contain only Python files, so the original statement stands for them. Failure modes. Treating leres as unlicensed or as MIT-only misses the academic-use-only terms in the pix2pix component. Limitations. Only the licence files were read; which source files each licence covers, and the weights' terms, were not checked. Not legal advice. Version and date. main branch, folder listing and files read 2026-10-24.

Limitations: Folder listing came from a directory API read, not from the fetched bytes; some folders may hold licences elsewhere. Corrected by C3-B762-01; where the correction disagrees, the correction governs.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/README.md",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/LICENSE.txt",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/src/custom_controlnet_aux/open_pose/LICENSE",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/src/custom_controlnet_aux/midas/LICENSE",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/src/custom_controlnet_aux/lineart/LICENSE",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DepthAnything/Depth-Anything-V2/main/README.md",
      "note": "intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Problem. Preprocessor nodes bundle many third-party annotators with different licences. Conditions. Commercial work using comfyui_controlnet_aux. Method. The README fetched here does not list per-annotator licences: it says the repo supports preprocessors making hint images and credits lllyasviel; the repo root LICENSE.txt is Apache-2.0. Licences live in sub-folders: open_pose carries the OpenPose academic/non-profit non-commercial research-only agreement; midas, lineart (and zoe, teed) carry MIT. The Depth-Anything-V2 README says only the Small model is Apache-2.0 and Base/Large/Giant are CC-BY-NC-4.0. Several folders (e.g. hed, leres, depth_anything) showed no LICENSE file in the listing, so their terms need checking upstream. Failure modes. Assuming the root Apache licence covers all annotators. Limitations. Weights are separate downloads with their own terms; not checked. Not legal advice. Version/date. as fetched. · locator: intro; LICENSE.txt; open_pose/LICENSE; midas/LICENSE; lineart/LICENSE; LICENSE section; researcher reasoning · source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fannovel16/comfyui_controlnet_aux/main/README.md

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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