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let's say I am using Tailwind CSS (licensed under MIT) in my website by using the npm package "tailwindcss" which on build creates a css file. According to MIT - "The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.".

The css file that is created has a comment on top "/* ! tailwindcss v3.0.23 | MIT License | https://tailwindcss.com */"

Is that sufficient? or do I need to include the whole MIT text or do I need to make a /license page and write about it there "tailwindcss is used in this website, licensed under MIT - full MIT license here"? if not, how do I do it correctly?

I saw some sites like this which seem to use tailwindcss but in the devtool sources only have the top line in the css "tailwindcss v3.0.23 | MIT License | https://tailwindcss.com" is that a violation of the MIT license?

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    See also opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/9258/…
    – Brandin
    Dec 31, 2022 at 5:28
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    Since it's on Github and distributed via npm (their web site tells you to install it via npm), you could claim that it is a bug in the distribution. Probably they should either modify the minification process to exclude that MIT notice from minification, or they should arrange that the npm install process also installs a copy of the license in a separate file.
    – Brandin
    Dec 31, 2022 at 5:35
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    Alternatively they might simply change the link in the minified version to point to a page containing the actual license. The current hyperlink only points to the tailwind landing page, which doesn't mention the license anywhere. Since it's a web project, including a hyperlink to a page where the actual license text is reproduced might arguably be considered as "including" the license in the copy.
    – Brandin
    Dec 31, 2022 at 5:38

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This is a point where common web development practices deviate from the actual text of the license. The minified CSS file contains the text “MIT License”, but not the actual text of the license as required by the license:

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

In all likelihood, nothing will come from this, especially if the minified CSS file was provided by the Tailwind project itself.

However, to be safe, you should fulfil the actual license conditions instead. For example:

  • You could edit the CSS file to include a license header.
  • You could collect all open source licenses that you rely on into a separate “credits” page that is reachable e.g. via your site footer. Such separate pages are more common in mobile apps, though, and I've never seen this on a website. There are tools such as yarn licenses generate-disclaimer that can generate such pages from package metadata, though I don't think it can help in this specific case.
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    thanks for answering, I will go with the "credits" page then. Also I found sites that include licenses in a /license page, for example - this
    – hdtk
    Dec 31, 2022 at 13:18

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