[License-review] License Review Submission: Irrevocable MIT License (MIT-I)

[McCoy Smith]

On 8/15/2025 7:12 PM, Pamela Chestek wrote:
>
>
> In the general case, one can use copyright as a trigger for a 
> non-copyright obligation, and there's not really any limit on what 
> action you can oblige someone to perform. 

Well, you can get into trouble using copyright as a trigger for 
non-copyright (or even copyright) obligations when they stray into 
copyright misuse (at least in the USA). An example might be trying to 
control non-copyrighted data via copyright used to either create or 
access it. Assessment Technologies v. Wiredata, 350 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 
2003)https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/350/640/625754/ 
Another might be trying to control separate and independent, 
non-derivative, copyright works.

Copyright misuse is, in the USA, a defense, so a license that purports 
to impose misuseful conditions is not invalid, but those conditions 
would not be enforceable.