159
votes
Accepted
What are the essential differences between the BSD and MIT licences?
When talking about BSD license, you have to be aware that there is not one, but actually four different BSD licenses. The most basic is the zero-clause BSD license which is basically a public domain ...
- 11.3k
81
votes
Do Open Source Licenses allow authors to corrupt their own code, like in the colors.js case?
Open source licenses apply to other people. They do not apply to the author and copyright owner of the project. The author/owner can always do whatever they want. Software licenses can't prohibit the ...
- 7,526
49
votes
Accepted
If my repository uses a MIT license, can I submit a DMCA takedown for someone who copied it?
I've heard that MIT takes away most copyright
This is absolutely not correct; the MIT License (and all other open source licenses) rely on copyright law to be effective.
and permits free use
The ...
- 11.2k
47
votes
Accepted
Can I modify an open source license to require that I be notified?
I cannot say whether this would be considered open source, but it would not be free software. Free software confers, amongst other things, the right to modify the software; the FSF refer to this as ...
- 37.9k
43
votes
Can the MIT license be applied to music?
Can it be applied? Yes. But it would seem unhelpful to make anybody using the music to repeat the contents of the MIT license which makes multiple references to "Software"; that is at best ...
- 11.2k
41
votes
Do Open Source Licenses allow authors to corrupt their own code, like in the colors.js case?
The simple answer is "yes", if nothing else because there is no judge of what is "dysfunctional" and what is "removing legacy features".
However, I'd argue you're ...
- 11.2k
37
votes
Accepted
Obtaining MIT licence for own plugin
You just include the licence in your software, no registration needed. Your software is always copyright protected, you state the terms of use through a licence.
- 356
31
votes
Accepted
If I fork a lib that is MIT / Apache 2.0 dual license, can I change it to CC0 for redistribution?
Generally, you do not have the right to re-license the work of anyone - you have to keep at least the obligations from the license under which you receive the work.
So let's compare that:
CC0 ...
- 8,270
30
votes
Accepted
Since some software is open source, can you add a feature you created and use it for your own personal use?
Yes
VSCode
Mureinik already pointed out that VSCode is licensed under the MIT license, which is a permissive license. To quote from it (emphasis mine):
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, ...
- 651
28
votes
Accepted
If I'm using a GPL 3 library in my project, can I license my project under MIT license?
No; incorporating or linking against GPL requires that your project-as-a-whole be distributed under GPL. But you can include MIT licensed parts (or another GPL-compatible license) in the project. Also,...
- 8,463
27
votes
Accepted
Who will be the copyright owner of a new file in a forked repository on github?
Your question suggests that you regard copyrights as property rights. This is a completely understandable misconception - big content creators push this agenda quite hard - but it is a misconception. ...
- 37.9k
25
votes
Accepted
Ramifications of the proposed new SE licensing model
I posted an answer to the announcement post that pretty much sums up why part of this - the exception - is a bad idea:
You're essentially creating a crayon license.
If you modify the terms of ...
- 8,700
25
votes
If I fork a lib that is MIT / Apache 2.0 dual license, can I change it to CC0 for redistribution?
In my opinion, it is not fine to relicense content under either of those licences to CC0. CC0 includes a pretty strong waiver of moral rights, which are not mentioned in either the MIT or Apache ...
- 37.9k
25
votes
Accepted
What should I do with the copyright details in a codebase when modifying it when it wasn't forked?
I think this may be one of those cases where people get confused about copyright because they're caught up in the mechanics of github.
You have downloaded a copy of a piece of code licensed under MIT, ...
- 37.9k
24
votes
Do Open Source Licenses allow authors to corrupt their own code, like in the colors.js case?
There are really two separate issues here:
Is the developer allowed to sabotage their own code? - Yes, because it's their own code. The license has nothing to do with this, because the license does ...
- 3,857
23
votes
Obtaining MIT licence for own plugin
You don't "obtain" a licence. It's not a licence like a driver's licence that gives you permission to do something; rather, the license you apply to your software is you giving permission for other ...
- 339
23
votes
What prevents a large company with deep pockets from rebranding my MIT project and killing me off?
There is not much which would disallow that. The MIT license is pretty liberal and as long as one obeys the requirement to display the copyright notice in the product appropriately, there's not much ...
- 8,270
22
votes
Accepted
How to use MIT license in a project?
The MIT license is so simple, you should be able to find the answer to your questions by just reading it. It has only one requirement:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be ...
- 5,257
22
votes
Accepted
Can I relicense my own GPL code into Apache/MIT?
As the copyright holder you are in no way bound by any open source license you choose to distribute your own work under.
While you cannot retroactively change the license terms of a particular ...
- 2,316
21
votes
What are the essential differences between the BSD and MIT licences?
A couple of things were not mentioned in the accepted answer:
documentation associated with the software
community adoption
BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent aka "BSD+Patent"
Documentation
Another ...
- 401
21
votes
Accepted
MIT license and "All rights reserved."?
It's correct but unnecessary. It's there for clarity.
When you do some work, the default copyright position is all rights reserved. Nobody can do anything with your work without your express ...
- 8,700
20
votes
Accepted
Can I change the license of a forked project to the MIT if the license of the parent project has changed from the GPL to the MIT?
That depends.
If you didn't make any changes in your fork of the project, you can just update your fork to include the latest upstream changes and get the license change along with it.
If the ...
- 23.1k
20
votes
Do Open Source Licenses allow authors to corrupt their own code, like in the colors.js case?
colors.js is distributed under the MIT License. According to this license (emphasis mine):
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT ...
- 301
19
votes
Accepted
Can I sell my MIT-licensed software if it is modified by others?
Depending on how they chose to provide their fork, yes.
The MIT license, which you chose to license your work under, doesn't prevent anyone downstream from changing the license, nor from changing the ...
- 8,700
19
votes
Accepted
Am I in danger if a project component is relicensed?
The important thing to know is that they (almost certainly (*)) cannot retroactively change the license of the version that you are using. They can change the license to new versions they release. So, ...
- 4,119
19
votes
I am using a MIT licensed module in a closed source consumer device. What are my obligations?
I think you've answered your own question...
While you don't need to disclose your source code, you'll need to mention/acknowledge the MIT software. It's simple, copy the MIT license for the library ...
- 666
19
votes
Since some software is open source, can you add a feature you created and use it for your own personal use?
The freedom to modify a piece of software is an essential open-source freedom covered by any open-source license, specifically the MIT License which VSCode is licensed under.
In other words - you most ...
- 3,767
18
votes
Accepted
How much is "substantial portion" in MIT licence?
Substantial portion is a legal term. Its exact definition will depend on jurisdiction, be subject to interpretation and possibly including subjective analyses. When in doubt, ask a lawyer. To err on ...
- 8,463
18
votes
Can I modify an open source license to require that I be notified?
Do not use non-standard opensource licenses
The other answers are great, and show that what you want to do is probably not too far down an OSS route but here is a different viewpoint.
There's a ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible