MIT License: The Most Popular Open Source License

The MIT License

The MIT License is the most popular open source license in the world, used by projects like React, Node.js, jQuery, Rails, and hundreds of thousands of npm packages. Its popularity stems from its simplicity and permissiveness.

Full Text

MIT License

Copyright (c) [year] [author]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND...

Key Characteristics

Attribute	Value
SPDX Identifier	MIT
Type	Permissive
Patent Grant	No explicit grant
Copyleft	No

Permissions

• Commercial use — You can use the software for commercial purposes
• Modification — You can modify the source code
• Distribution — You can distribute the software
• Private use — You can use the software privately

Conditions

• License and copyright notice — A copy of the license and copyright notice must be included with the software

Limitations

• Liability — The author cannot be held liable for damages
• Warranty — The software is provided without warranty

Why Choose MIT?

The MIT License is ideal when you want maximum adoption and do not care about requiring derivative works to stay open source. It is the simplest and most common choice for JavaScript libraries, utility packages, and developer tools.