However, the same thing could be achieved with closed source models. There's nothing to stop an LLM being made available to run on prem under a restrictive lice

However, the same thing could be achieved with closed source models. There's nothing to stop an LLM being made available to run on prem under a restrictive license. It would really be no different to ye olde desktop software - keeping ownership over bits shipped to a customer is solved with the law rather than technical means. That said, I really hope open source models can succeed, it would be far better for the industry if we had a Linux of LLMs.