Picking a license

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 14 May 2010 08:37:14 -0700, Patrick Maupin wrote:

> I don't actually
> recall any suits about violations of the MIT or Apache licenses.

The most obvious example was that the University of Berkley counter-sued 
Unix System Laboratories over USL's infringement of the BSD licence.

Admittedly this wasn't the MIT or Apache licence, and the circumstances 
were fairly special. It's a fairly safe bet that anyone who is 
distributing their software under such a licence is sending an implicit 
signal that they don't intend to sue. But it does demonstrate that MIT-
style licences aren't the same as public domain -- they do impose 
obligations on the recipient, even if those obligations are much lighter 
than those of the GPL.


-- 
Steven