MIT notice in firmware for devices with no user interface

Question

The MIT license says:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

In case of proprietary software, there is usually a dedicated screen which one can navigate to and view all such notices.

But what about cases where we design a device with very limited user interface, not suitable to display the license and use an MIT-licensed library as part of the firmware.

Would including the notice in the manual be enough, provided we ship the manual with each unit? Or even adding a license leaflet, separate from the manual, which is shipped with each unit?

Separately, what about firmware updates? For example, we digitally ship an update (potentially changing included libraries), would having a license file accompany it be enough?

Answer 1

Yes.

There virtually is little other choice of making the users aware of an embedded device without any interface. Thus if you do as you suggest you should be on the safe side to fulifll the obligations from the license.

When you distribute update packages they will probably come as a zip file or similar which includes the actual binary, maybe an installer, and instructions - and also a license where you put the apporpriate notices.

If you feel generous you might even offer for download on your webpage the sources of (the open source parts of) your software - which then also includes the licenses.