Global InformationMIT License information
 | |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
|---|---|
| SPDX identifier | MIT (see list for more)[1] |
| Debian FSG compatible | Yes[2] |
| FSF approved | Yes[3][4] |
| OSI approved | Yes[5] |
| GPL compatible | Yes[3][4] |
| Copyleft | No[3][4] |
| Linking from code with a different licence | Yes |
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The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)[6] in the late 1980s.[7] As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility.[8][9]
Unlike copyleft software licenses, the MIT License also permits reuse within proprietary software, provided that all copies of the software or its substantial portions include a copy of the terms of the MIT License and also a copyright notice.[9][10] In 2015, the MIT License was the most popular software license on GitHub.[11]
Notable projects that use the MIT License include the X Window System, Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Lua, jQuery, .NET, Angular, and React.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
SPDX License Listwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "License information". The Debian Project. Software in the Public Interest (published July 12, 2017). 1997–2017. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
This page presents the opinion of some debian-legal contributors on how certain licenses follow the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). ... Licenses currently found in Debian main include: ... Expat/MIT-style licenses ...
- ^ a b c "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". The GNU Project. Free Software Foundation (published April 4, 2017). 2014–2017. Expat License. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
This is a lax, permissive non-copyleft free software license, compatible with the GNU GPL. It is sometimes ambiguously referred to as the MIT License.
- ^ a b c "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". The GNU Project. Free Software Foundation (published April 4, 2017). 2014–2017. X11 License. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
This is a lax permissive non-copyleft free software license, compatible with the GNU GPL. ... This license is sometimes called the MIT license, but that term is misleading, since MIT has used many licenses for software.
- ^ "Licenses by Name". Open Source Initiative. n.d. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
The following licenses have been approved by the OSI. ... MIT License (MIT) ...
- ^ Rosen, Lawrence E. (2005). Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-148787-6. OCLC 56012651.
- ^ Haff, Gordon. "The mysterious history of the MIT License". opensource.com. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
The date? The best single answer is probably 1987. But the complete story is more complicated and even a little mysterious. [...] Precursors from 1985. The X Consortium or X11 License variant from 1987. Or the Expat License from 1998 or 1999.
- ^ Hanwell, Marcus D. (January 28, 2014). "Should I use a permissive license? Copyleft? Or something in the middle?". opensource.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
Permissive licensing simplifies things One reason the business world, and more and more developers [...], favor permissive licenses is in the simplicity of reuse. The license usually only pertains to the source code that is licensed and makes no attempt to infer any conditions upon any other component, and because of this there is no need to define what constitutes a derived work. I have also never seen a license compatibility chart for permissive licenses; it seems that they are all compatible.
- ^ a b "Licence Compatibility and Interoperability". Open-Source Software - Develop, share, and reuse open source software for public administrations. Joinup. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
The licences for distributing free or open source software (FOSS) are divided in two families: permissive and copyleft. Permissive licences (BSD, MIT, X11, Apache, Zope) are generally compatible and interoperable with most other licences, tolerating to merge, combine or improve the covered code and to re-distribute it under many licences (including non-free or "proprietary").
- ^ "Paid software includes MIT licensed library, does that put my app under MIT too?". Software Engineering Stack Exchange. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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