Can you alter the MIT license?

Bruce Perens bruce at perens.com
Mon Nov 15 20:24:23 UTC 1999


From: "Scott Johnston" <johnston at vectaport.com>
> Can you give an example of a term you can *add* to a non-copyleft free
> software license that would not conflict with the freedoms originally
> granted?

Look at all of those commercial X servers: Sun, SGI, HP, XI Graphics, etc.
They are not free software, yet they are based on software under the X11
license. Look at the commercial BSD OS derivatives, especially the ones on
workstations.

The X11 license grants freedom to redistribute, but does not mandate that
derived works grant freedom to redistribute too, and it does not require
that you redistribute source code. The GPL is one of only a few licenses that
requires that derived works be freely redistributable.

A number of licenses pass the OSD that do not require that freedom be passed
on ad infinitum.

	Thanks

	Bruce



More information about the License-discuss mailing list