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MIT License Modern Variant


Also known as MIT License Modern Variant, MIT-Modern-Variant.

Commercial use
allowed
Share alike
not required
Attribution
required (keep the copyright and license notices)

Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/MIT-Modern-Variant

Permissions

  • Change license by library convention Library convention: family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing. Replacing the license of the work, or of an adaptation, with another license, or changing its terms.

    Duties

    • Use a compliant license by library convention Library convention: family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing. Choosing a replacement license that stays compliant with the terms of the original license.
  • Charge distribution fee from the text Charging a fee for the act of providing a copy of the work to someone else.
  • Commercial use from the text Using the work to generate income, directly or indirectly, for example by selling it or by using it in advertising.
  • Derivative works from the text Distributing an adaptation of the work and making it available to the public.
  • Derive from the text Creating a new work from the work, such as a translation, adaptation or arrangement of it or of a part of it.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
  • Display from the text Showing the work to the public without making a copy the viewer keeps.
  • Distribute from the text Providing copies of the work to the public or to anyone else.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
  • Modified works from the text Distributing a modified version of the work that does not amount to a new, derivative work.
  • Modify from the text Altering the work, for example by updating it, without creating a new work; an alteration that creates a new work is Derive.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
  • Present from the text Performing the work in public, including by broadcast or other communication to the public.
  • Reproduce from the text Making copies of the work in any form.

Prohibitions

This license states no prohibitions.

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

  • Promote by default rule (adopted) Using the name or trademarks of the licensor or of contributors to endorse or promote a product.

    This license says nothing about Promote, and the graph applies this reading in all jurisdictions it covers: it is not permitted unless the license permits it.

    A licence that says nothing about endorsement is read as not allowing it: the licence gives the licensee no right to use the licensor's name or marks in a way that states or implies that the licensor endorses the licensee or its product, while stating truthfully that a work is based on or uses the licensed work is a different act that this rule does not decide. A copyright licence grants rights in the work, and the right to use a name or a trademark is a separate right under trademark law and the protection of names, which a silent copyright licence does not pass on. Combining a licence that is silent about endorsement with one that permits it shows a conflict marked as coming from this rule.

    Basis Trademark and name rights are separate from copyright: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 article 9 lets the proprietor of an EU trade mark prevent all third parties not having his consent from using the sign in the course of trade, and Directive (EU) 2015/2436 article 10, 15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125(a), section 12 BGB and section 43 ABGB protect marks and names in the same way. The library's evidence is Creative Commons 4.0 section 2(b)(2): Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License. A copyright licence that is silent grants no right to use the licensor's name or marks to suggest endorsement (Worldwide)

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Info

Target asset types
Software
Region / jurisdiction
Worldwide
Validity
Perpetual
Source
https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT-Modern-Variant.html
Legal code
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:MIT#Modern_Variants
This description is published under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
SPDX identifier
MIT-Modern-Variant on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier
MIT-Modern-Variant

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/MIT-Modern-Variant",
  "license-title": "MIT License Modern Variant",
  "spdx-id": "MIT-Modern-Variant",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/MIT-Modern-Variant> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/MIT-Modern-Variant"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/MIT-Modern-Variant" rel="license">MIT License Modern Variant</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge DALICC badge for MIT License Modern Variant

Markdown

[![License: MIT License Modern Variant](https://dalicc.net/license-library/MIT-Modern-Variant/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/MIT-Modern-Variant)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/MIT-Modern-Variant"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/MIT-Modern-Variant/badge.svg" alt="License: MIT License Modern Variant"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by
Giray Havur
Written on
2026-09-15
Second review
not yet done
Record changed since this review
yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings
10 recorded, 6 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models the modern MIT variant, the wording used by Ptolemy and Tcl and Tk. Its grant is narrower in form than the MIT grant, being a permission to use, copy, modify and distribute rather than a permission to deal in the software without restriction, and it names neither sublicensing nor selling. The condition is the familiar notice condition, modelled as cc:Attribution and cc:Notice on distribute, modify and derive, as on IscLicense.

10 findings
  • major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

    The grant reads: "Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose". The record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works and modified works. Sublicensing is not named, so neither dalicc:sublicense nor odrl:grantUse is written. dalicc:chargeDistributionFee follows the library convention for a license that is silent about what the licensee may charge; the phrase about royalty fees describes the licensor, not the licensee.

  • major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

    The condition reads: "provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software". cc:Attribution and cc:Notice are duties on distribute, modify and derive, so the notice travels with a changed copy too.

  • major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

    dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited because the text requires the license itself to travel with every copy, which is the reading IscLicense and BSD-3-Clause take of the same clause. The MIT record does not carry the prohibition although its text has the same requirement, so the library is not uniform here. (Corrected on 2026-09-15 by the verification pass: see the rubric 3 finding on relicensing below.)

  • info Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition none

    No endorsement or advertising clause, so dalicc:promote is not prohibited.

  • minor Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

    The text carries the liability paragraph first and the warranty paragraph second. Each is quoted into its own field, in the words of the text.

  • info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction none

    The text names no legal system and no term, so cc:jurisdiction is dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual.

  • info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

    One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software, following IscLicense. The text licenses software and its documentation.

  • info Rubric 9 record none

    The consistency check with the axioms of dg_default returned no conflicts.

  • info Rubric 10 record none

    Against MIT the difference is the missing sublicense and sell wording, and the warranty paragraph, which here also disclaims any obligation to provide maintenance, support, updates or modifications. Against IscLicense the deontic model is identical.

  • major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

    Library convention 15: a licence that asks for no reciprocity and no source code asks only that the notice travels with the copy, which is a duty on the acts it governs and not a bar on putting the copy under other terms. dalicc:ChangeLicense is therefore a permission here, and the prohibition the earlier reading wrote is removed. The text reads: "Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software." The permission carries the dalicc:compliantLicense duty, as Apache-2.0 does, because the notice has to survive the relicensing.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

  1. Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

    The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on, named the license the record itself is published under and removed the quotes that do not name the act they support.

    8 changes
    • changed permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]

      was permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]

      Manual edit The statement is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing: the text does not state it in as many words. Its duty dalicc:compliantLicense is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing.

    • changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software."

    • changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software."

    • changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:Attribution quotes "Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software."

    • added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>

      Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.

    • changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.

    • changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.

    • changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice]

      Manual edit Removed the quoted evidence of duty cc:Attribution on odrl:derive, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:distribute, duty cc:Attribution on odrl:modify: the quoted sentence does not name the act. The statements stay, read from the text without a linked quote.

  2. Version 1

    Created from the license text on 2026-09-15 (Permissive: MIT, ISC and BSD-like).

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.