Biting the bullet and hiring a lawyer always feels expensive, but look at it this way: would you save the amount of money it would cost ($1,000? maybe, tops?) b

Biting the bullet and hiring a lawyer always feels expensive, but look at it this way: would you save the amount of money it would cost ($1,000? maybe, tops?) by not having to recreate this project from scratch? Especially since you are considering using it commercially. Consider the costs involved if your commercial venture were sued or, less tangibly, called out as a illegally basing its product on someone else’s IP? The times I‘ve had to pay substantially for legal services have usually involved investments or tax issues related to stock options. It always feels substantial, but pales in comparison to the amounts of money involved and having a reasonably certain confidence that I’m not going to “lose” any more of it. I would suggest that you weigh the amount of time you think it would take you to recreate this project as part of your startup costs. That is money that you will “gain” by using this project.