License agreements tend to be very long and annoying to read. We see them all the time, creating accounts, using services, etc... They are everywhere. They go on for pages and pages and no one ever seems to read it. They just click the agree button and carry on. For the most part, users don't run into problems, but company's still need to protect themselves in the case that something out of the ordinary does happen. They protect themselves by creating their terms and conditions.
In these terms and conditions, there is usually other licenses that need to be followed as well. One license in particular that I want to talk about is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology license or better knows as the MIT license.
This license is short, in fact it's only 171 words long. It's easy to read and for the most part is clear about the information it is trying to tell. I personally found it easy to read. I found it unnecessary to dig deeper and look into every section a few words at a time.
Kyle Mithcell who is in both law and technology has a blog post who examines the license extensively and intensively. He digs deep into the meaning of every word and every part of the license.
A few things I found interesting is that this is a license where anyone can take anything and use it for their own gain. Meaning that they can sell it and profit from it without giving a percentage to the owners. It's an odd license and it sounds like something that no business would ever want because a business is supposed to make money. Which leads me to the next interesting part.
This license lets people take what's already there and implement it in another way or create a different use for it. They are free to do as they wish but there is one catch. They cannot blame the creator for any of their problems. If the created software gets hacked, they have absolutely no one to blame but themselves because they have to follow the license agreement to use the software. This opens up innovation with current software but it's risky because all responsibility is on the users of the software.
There is absolutely no warranty with this agreement. People are free to do whatever they want and if something goes wrong, they can't turn around and say there's something wrong with your code. They have absolutely no right to do so. They agreed to it and the owners are not responsible for any reason.
Overall, this is an interesting license that would be used for certain scenarios. The best scenario I can think of is students work that can potentially impact the world. An idea that they have can be implemented by bigger companies with much more resources and they can see their name on the license. Although not much credit is given, the name is in the license section and they can proudly say I started this.
In these terms and conditions, there is usually other licenses that need to be followed as well. One license in particular that I want to talk about is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology license or better knows as the MIT license.
This license is short, in fact it's only 171 words long. It's easy to read and for the most part is clear about the information it is trying to tell. I personally found it easy to read. I found it unnecessary to dig deeper and look into every section a few words at a time.
Kyle Mithcell who is in both law and technology has a blog post who examines the license extensively and intensively. He digs deep into the meaning of every word and every part of the license.
A few things I found interesting is that this is a license where anyone can take anything and use it for their own gain. Meaning that they can sell it and profit from it without giving a percentage to the owners. It's an odd license and it sounds like something that no business would ever want because a business is supposed to make money. Which leads me to the next interesting part.
This license lets people take what's already there and implement it in another way or create a different use for it. They are free to do as they wish but there is one catch. They cannot blame the creator for any of their problems. If the created software gets hacked, they have absolutely no one to blame but themselves because they have to follow the license agreement to use the software. This opens up innovation with current software but it's risky because all responsibility is on the users of the software.
There is absolutely no warranty with this agreement. People are free to do whatever they want and if something goes wrong, they can't turn around and say there's something wrong with your code. They have absolutely no right to do so. They agreed to it and the owners are not responsible for any reason.
Overall, this is an interesting license that would be used for certain scenarios. The best scenario I can think of is students work that can potentially impact the world. An idea that they have can be implemented by bigger companies with much more resources and they can see their name on the license. Although not much credit is given, the name is in the license section and they can proudly say I started this.
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