Re: MIT licenses
Francesco Poli <frx@firenze.linux.it> writes:
> On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:39:56 +0000 MJ Ray wrote:
>
>> I think that's the one. There are several often called MIT. Someone
>> has moved the copy on X.org to which
>> http://www.fr.debian.org/legal/licenses/ links - has anyone
>> a new URL besides the failed open source initiative, please?
>
> AFAIK, the two most famous licenses ambiguously called "MIT license",
> are:
>
> a) the Expat license (http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt)
>
> b) the X11 license (formerly http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html)
>
> The latter URL (http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html) has been useful
> for long time, but now seems to have vanished.
> Another URL (http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.6/COPYRIGHT2.html#3) includes
> something that resembles to the X11 license, but it rather seems to be
> an Expat license with an added final no-advertising/no-promotion clause
> similar to the one found in the X11 license.
>
> I'm pretty sure the "real" X11 license (the one once found at
> http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html, now vanished) has other
> differences that distinguish it from the Expat license.
> Namely:
> a) the condition explicitly mentions that the copyright notice and
> license text must be included in supporting documentation (as well as in
> the Software or any substantial portion)
> b) permission to sublicense is not explicitly mentioned
>
> These two differences seem to be negligible, since the term "Software"
> includes "associated documentation files" and the list of granted rights
> is exemplary, not exhaustive ("Permission is hereby granted [...] to
> deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
> the rights to [...]").
> Nonetheless, the X11 and Expat license texts differ in those details too
> (not only for the presence of the final no-advertising/no-promotion
> clause).
>
> Has anyone found another URL for the "real" X11 license (the one that
> used to live at http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html)?
Gentoo has a fairly comprehensive collection of license texts at
http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/licenses/, including an
"MIT" and an "X11" license that are quite distinct.
--
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com
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