82
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 ...
- 7,728
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 ...
- 18.6k
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 ...
- 47.1k
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 ...
- 18.6k
43
votes
Accepted
Can the author of an MIT licenced project prevent me from publishing to an App Store
Can he legally prevent me from doing this even though his license says otherwise?
By releasing the source under an MIT licence, the rightsholder has explicitly given you permission to use, copy, ...
- 47.1k
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 ...
- 18.6k
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
35
votes
Accepted
My code is GPL licensed, can I issue a license to have my code be distributed in a specific MIT licensed project?
If I own a GPL-licensed software that is used as a component in other peoples user-facing software, can I issue a separate license so that my software can be used in a popular MIT licensed project?
...
34
votes
Accepted
Is there a license like MIT that explicitly forbids the use of AI?
The question here remains "is the AI model a derivative work of the training inputs?"
If it is, then all the AI companies are already in violation of copyright and you don't need a specific ...
- 18.6k
32
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 ...
- 10.8k
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, ...
- 671
28
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. ...
- 47.1k
27
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 ...
- 481
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 ...
- 9,298
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 ...
- 47.1k
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, ...
- 47.1k
24
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 ...
- 5,557
24
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 ...
- 2,416
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 ...
- 5,132
23
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 ...
- 9,298
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 ...
- 10.8k
22
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 ...
- 8,859
22
votes
Where to put license for MIT licensed code on website
I'm surprised this question doesn't come up more often. It's a tricky issue, and one that is highly open to interpretation.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
There is not a lot of specific guidance on ...
- 633
22
votes
Accepted
Is it legal to remove a contributor's name from the licence?
No, it is not legal to remove the copyright notice of a contributor who has offered a copyrightable contribution under the MIT license. Jeff has offered his work to Mark under the MIT license and Mark ...
- 35.6k
21
votes
Which license suits best when you want users to contribute to your code and not just take it as free beer
I would want something in return, even a bug report[ing] would be sufficient.
This requirement is not compatible with the Open Source Definition, the definition of open source as used by this site; ...
- 18.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't the MIT license have "patent use" permission?
The MIT and BSD licenses were drafted before software patents were common. Therefore, they completely ignore the topic. For users of MIT- or BSD-licensed software, this creates the risk of a kind of ...
- 38.6k
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 ...
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
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible