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          <div class="breadcrumb"><a href="/">Home</a></div>                              <h2>Open Source Initiative OSI - The MIT License:Licensing</h2>                                                  <div class="clear-block">
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        <img style="float: right; margin: 1em;" width="100" height="137" alt="[OSI Approved License]" src="/trademarks/opensource/
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        <p>The MIT License</p>
<p>Copyright (c) &lt;year&gt; &lt;copyright holders&gt;</p>
<p>Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy<br />
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal<br />
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights<br />
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell<br />
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is<br />
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:</p>
<p>The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in<br />
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.</p>
<p>THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR<br />
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,<br />
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE<br />
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER<br />
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,<br />
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN<br />
THE SOFTWARE.</p>
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<a id="comment-1308"></a>
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      <span class="submitted">Thu, 2010-04-15 23:11 — opensourcefan</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1308" class="active">Copyleft or not?</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>&gt;The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.<br />
Then why does Wikipedia state (unreferenced) this license is NOT copyleft? Does Wikipedia need fixing? Is there a reliable source about this?</p>
          </div>
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<a id="comment-1272"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published even">

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      <span class="submitted">Tue, 2010-03-16 06:37 — aladdin</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1272" class="active">Sublicensing</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>If I obtain code under the MIT license, then make changes to it. Can I sub-license it under my own terms? Or do I have to still include their original MIT license with my software.</p>
<p>Basically I'm creating software that contains MIT licensed code, but I want to sell it with my own sub-license for the end users so they can't redistribute it for free.</p>
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<a id="comment-1172"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published odd">

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      <span class="submitted">Fri, 2010-01-08 13:44 — Samuel72</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1172" class="active">How To Comply</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>I'd like to use some MIT-licensed xml-parsing code in my iPhone game. This seems to require that I package the MIT license with the application. However, my iPhone app does not include extensive documentation and my demographic will not want legal notices shoved in their faces.</p>
<p>My boss is afraid of using this code because our company is very small and doesn't have the money for any type of legal battle. What is the best way to comply with the MIT license in an iPhone app without compromising user experience?<br />
___________<br />
Samuel Fattizi</p>
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<a id="comment-1123"></a>
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      <span class="submitted">Tue, 2009-07-28 07:47 — searlea</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1123" class="active">Referring to license via URL</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>Is it sufficient to refer to the license via URL?  I want to modify and use some code that only refers to the license via:</p>
<p>/* Licensed under the MIT license: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php */</p>
<p>Is it OK to integrate code within a larger code-base (e.g. using some MIT-licensed JavaScript within a larger javascript library) with a wrapper / comment inserted in the appropriate place:</p>
<p>/* Function foobar derived from MIT-licensed code: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php */</p>
<p>Note: I've no idea of the legal significance of changing "Licensed under the MIT license" to "Derived from MIT licensed code" - hence the question.</p>
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<div class="indented"><a id="comment-1153"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published odd">

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      <span class="submitted">Mon, 2009-12-28 14:41 — shlomif</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1153" class="active">I think so.</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>I am not a lawyer,  but I think it's good enough. A lot of JavaScript out there does not put the entire licence blurb there to save space. Pedantics (like the Debian project) also need a "Copyright by Foo Bar, 2009" statement.</p>
<p>Regarding the wrapper - it should be OK, but make sure you also reproduce the copyright blurb and a link to the one who originated it. I should note that MIT/X11-licensed code can be sub-licensed to any other licence.</p>
<p>------------------</p>
<p>Shlomi Fish, http://www.shlomifish.org/</p>
<p>When Chuck Norris uses Gentoo, "emerge kde" finishes in under a minute. A computer cannot afford to keep Chuck waiting for too long.</p>
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</div><a id="comment-1122"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published even">

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      <span class="submitted">Mon, 2009-07-27 16:18 — matthew123</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1122" class="active">Another question</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>If we are making a closed source application, selling this application for profit, include this license in the open source license file, are we breaking any laws?</p>
<p>Thank you for your time.</p>
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<div class="indented"><a id="comment-1154"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published odd">

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      <span class="submitted">Mon, 2009-12-28 14:47 — shlomif</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1154" class="active">It&#039;s perfectly OK.</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>Feel free to use MIT/X11 licensed code in your non-open-source apps. You are allowed to link to such code from your application or even change the licence of derivative works (see the permission to "sub-license"). What you may need to do is give attribution:</p>
<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_%28copyright%29</p>
<p>I.e: say "libfunctionality , Copyright by J. Random Hacker, 2009" somewhere. But it would be hard to avoid giving attribution in practically all copyrighted open source code out there.</p>
<p>------------------</p>
<p>Shlomi Fish, http://www.shlomifish.org/</p>
<p>When Chuck Norris uses Gentoo, "emerge kde" finishes in under a minute. A computer cannot afford to keep Chuck waiting for too long.</p>
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</div><a id="comment-1116"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published even">

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      <span class="submitted">Fri, 2009-07-24 06:07 — trajavarma</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1116" class="active">A Question</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>I downloaded a software under this License.<br />
Upon the original software I have made several changes.<br />
I would like to release our it with those changes. </p>
<p>What kind of licensing can it go with ?(with the Same license ?)<br />
Is it possible to keep the changes under my name ?</p>
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<a id="comment-991"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published odd">

  <div class="clear-block">
      <span class="submitted">Wed, 2009-04-29 16:52 — HraKK</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-991" class="active">How can i use this?</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>If i want distribute open source system CMS on my site http://correct.com.ua/ can i use this license?</p>
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<div class="indented"><a id="comment-1102"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published even">

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      <span class="submitted">Fri, 2009-07-17 19:37 — nelson</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1102" class="active">Yes, of course you can use</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>Yes, of course you can use this license.  Just include the text of the license in a file called "LICENSE", and make reference to it in a file called "README".</p>
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</div><a id="comment-935"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published odd">

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      <span class="submitted">Fri, 2009-03-13 19:53 — MartinMusatov</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-935" class="active">Additional Clause Requested</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>As stated the law allows abuses of software.  Require a clause that no malicious uses may be entered into with said program conditional of any use.<br />
Martin M. Musatov</p>
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<div class="indented"><a id="comment-1103"></a>
<div class="comment comment-published even">

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      <span class="submitted">Fri, 2009-07-17 19:38 — nelson</span>
  
  
  
    <h3><a href="/licenses/mit-license.php#comment-1103" class="active">The problem with a clause</a></h3>

    <div class="content">
      <p>The problem with a clause like that is: who gets to define what is malicious use?  What happens if that entity ceases to make those decisions?</p>
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